Time to save money, get crafty and enhance your child’s fine motor skills! This Valentine’s Day, don’t spend money on fancy boxes of chocolates or glitter-covered valentines for your children. Not only are homemade Valentine’s Day arts and crafts less expensive than their store bought counterparts, but they also exhibit much more thoughtfulness. For most crafts, all you need is some construction paper in Valentine’s Day colors, a bit of glitter, glue and a whole lot of love.

1. Potato Stamp Valentines

A potato, some paint and construction paper are the makings of a unique homemade valentine. Grab a potato and cut it in half. Place a heart-shaped cookie cutter in the center of the potato and use a knife to cut away the potato around it so the heart shape stands out. Remove the cookie cutter and dip the potato in some paint, then stamp it on construction paper.  Add a personal message and the valentine is complete. This is a perfect time to talk about healthy food choices (potatoes vs. candy).

2. Customized Treat Bags

Instead of expensive valentines with candy attached, make your own. Fill a snack-sized plastic bag with some Valentine’s Day candies or a homemade Valentine’s Day snack mix. Staple a piece of construction paper over the top of the bag and decorate it with a special Valentine’s Day message, stickers or drawings.

3. Lollipop Flowers

Another alternative to store bought valentines is a lollipop flower. Cut out four equal-sized hearts from construction paper. They can be the same or different colors. Overlap the points of each heart to form a flower shape. Punch a small hole where the ends overlap and stick a lollipop in the middle. The stick of the lollipop will serve as the stem for the flower.

4. Candy Holder Valentine

A simple construction paper heart can also turn into a Valentine’s Day candy holder. Cut out a medium-sized construction paper heart. In the center of the heart, make two vertical slits, approximately one inch long and one inch apart.  Slip a piece of candy between the slits and finish decorating the heart with stickers, glitter or whatever materials you have on hand.

5. Puffy Heart Valentine

Change up the traditional construction paper valentine by making it puffy. Cut out two equal-sized construction paper hearts and decorate one side of each. Staple the hearts together with the decorated sides facing outward, leaving a one inch hole in the side. Fill the heart with small pieces of candy or scraps of paper, then staple the hole shut.

6. Hearts Wreath

Decorate your home or the home of a loved one with a wreath made of hearts. Cut out 50 hearts from different colors of construction paper. Keep hearts small to medium-sized, but make sure they are cut to varying widths and lengths. Overlap the largest hearts to make a circle shape, and then glue them together. Glue the remaining hearts onto the circle. Punch two holes at the top of the wreath and tie a ribbon between them to give you a way to hang the wreath.

7. Heart Envelopes

Skip the extra envelope by folding your heart-shaped valentine into an envelope of its own. Write a message on one side of a construction paper heart and decorate the other side or used patterned scrapbook paper for a more polished look. With the decorated side down, fold in the sides of the heart halfway to the center. Fold the top part of the heart inward so it touches the bottom of the sides. Fold the point inward to finish the flap of the envelope.