Homemade Valentine Gift for Teachers

I was at a craft place with my daughter recently and kids were decorating animals with decoupage. I hadn’t thought about decoupage in years but remember loving using images, scraps of paper and glue to cover a box as a craft I did with my mom. It’s a super simple craft and one that kids enjoy.

I am always looking for creative ways to use up leftover scraps of tissue paper, scrapbook paper and other odds and ends. I also had some small pieces of matte board left from another project, as well as some chipboard hearts (haven’t gotten to those yet.) Voila! Decoupage bookmarks are an easy and beautiful Valentine gift for teachers, grandparents or your girlfriends!

Valentine Craft Supplies

• Tissue paper, scrapbook paper or construction paper in a variety of pinks, reds, purples, and white
• Mod Podge
• Matte board, card board or chip board rectangles
• Paint Brush
• Black marker. I used a Faber Castell black marker with a brush tip but a fat Sharpie would work well, too!
• Acrylic paint (optional)

How Kids Can Help with this Easy Valentine Craft:

Warning, your kids might like step number one too much!! Don’t tear up more paper than you think you need.

1. Tear paper into small pieces. Make sure to include a variety of sizes and shapes. There is no right or wrong way to do this, just have fun ripping up the paper.

2. Use the brush to paint Mod Podge onto the rectangle. Only cover a small portion, not the whole surface. Mod Podge dries quickly.

3. Place shapes on the surface, they will stick to the glue but you also want to cover them with the Mod Podge. This makes a hard, shiny surface.

4. Continue to layer Mod Podge and shapes until entire surface is covered and you like the effect.

Tip: it’s okay to let pieces of paper hang over the edges. Just trim with scissors or Exacto knife once the piece is dry. This makes it easier for kids than trying to create perfect edges.

5. Allow surface to dry completely then use your black marker to write a word, saying or message on the bookmark.

Add more fun to Valentine Bookmarks

6. For some extra fun, you could add some glitter glue or use a little more glue and add dry glitter (caution, marker may spread when you add glue so paint around the letters.)

7. Finally, you can leave the back of the bookmark plain. Some of mine were a bit out of shape and black, so I painted them with pink acrylic paint. It took two coats to cover the black. You could also add a solid sheet of scrapbook paper or decoupage both sides.

Your kids will have so much fun and be so proud of these simple but lovely Valentines decoupage bookmarks.

Happy crafting!