Paint a Marbled Heart Card

This Valentine's Day, forget the store-bought cards and create your own: here's an activity that helps you make a sweet heart for your sweetheart! Get your preschooler painting her own homemade heart to give as a card or to decorate your home. All you need is some paint, marbles, and paper! The result? A beautiful heart card with an intricate,marbled design.

What You Need:

• 2 colors of paint (red and purple work well)
• 1 shallow box large enough for the paper heart to lay flat
• 2 pieces of construction paper such as pink and white
• Tape
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Marble
• Plastic spoon
• 2 paper cups
• White sheet of paper
• Marker
• Glue stick

1. Lay the two sheets of construction paper on top of each other. With your pencil, draw half a heart along the edge of the paper. Cut out the shape with the two pieces together. You’ll get two halves when done.
2. Lay the two halves side-by-side, forming a heart. Tape them together. Lay your heart inside the box.
3. Squirt just a little bit of paint inside the cup. Drop the marble in. Stir it around with the spoon.
4. Using the spoon, drop the marble inside the box onto your heart. Start rolling the marble around by gently shaking the box. You’ll see a neat design made by the marble. You might have to drop the marble into the paint several times in order to fill up the heart.

Make enough for all your relatives and friends. If you like, personalize each heart by having your child write an expression of love to glue in the center.