Love Bug Valentines

As promised, here is the winning Valentine craft sent in by Sara of Hostage Negotiation. Sara made these incredibly cute love bug Valentines with her three-year-old and sent in the following instructions.

Supplies: pink/red/white construction paper, scotch tape, glue stick, white glue, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, marker, glitter glue, and scissors

How to make the Love Bugs:

1) Cut out 3" circles from construction paper (I used a kid's cup as a trace. It worked well.) Short cut- draw 3 circles equal distance apart on the narrow side of the paper, fold into fourths and then cut out the 3 circles. . . you magically have 12! This makes enough for 4 caterpillars.

2) Arrange the circles in a red/white/pink pattern so that the pink ends up being the face (or however you like.) Using the glue stick, smear a little glue on the right half of the circle and overlap with another circle. Repeat until you get to the head which will be raised up a little bit from the body.

3) Fold the pipe cleaners into quarters and cut up. Once you have the size you like (I think I ultimately cut it into eighths), fold into 'L' shapes for the legs and antennae.

4) Flip the caterpillar over and use scotch tape or white glue to glue one leg onto each circle. (If you want more legs, do two on each circle. Also, tape/glue 2 to the top of the head for antennae.)

5) Using the marker, draw on face and message. I wrote " I <3>

6) Using white glue, glue the googly eyes onto the face.

7) Take glitter glue and outline the body (I used pink).

The project cost Sara nothing since she already had all the supplies on hand. These would be easy to mass produce and do with kiddies.

Enjoy making your love bugs and check back here at the Scrappy Frog for more Valentine ideas. I am trying to get quite a few Valentine craft posts up today so that you all can get them done before Valentines Day! :)