TPiB: Easy Last Minute Valentine’s Crafts

Origami Hearts
If your teens are anything like mine, they LOVE origami. And if you have the instructions and try it once or twice, usually you can walk them through it. The BEST part about origami is that you only need your copier paper and scissors (scissors to make the paper square).
There’s an awesome origami heart by MastaAzumarek that’s simple to do:
Or if you want (need) to make it book related, Foldsomething has a demo and instructions for a heart bookmark:
Jewelery
If you have extra magazines, or want to be rid of a few reams of colors paper, think about letting the teens loose to create their own paper bead jewelry. Wikihow has an easy tutorial and you can easily have a red/pink theme or a black/blue theme, and shape the end product to fit.
Or let the teens loose with any extra pony beads or other supplies leftover from extra crafts from the fall, and have them create their own jewelry. It can be as simple as a heart or a bracelet in various colors, or as complex as they want to make it. The one below is made from beads strung onto a chenille stem shaped like a heart, then strung on a ribbon.
What crafts do you have planned for your teens? Share in the comments!
Filed under: Crafts, TPIB, Valentine's Day

About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 32 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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We're doing brown sugar molded chocolates. Easy peasy and chocolate is a sure fire winner with my teens. Fill a small bowl with brown sugar, take something with an interesting shape, press it into the sugar and then remove it, then fill the depression with melted chocolate chips.
That sounds like so much fun! Another fun food one (which we can't do in my system) would be a chocolate tasting- get different types of chocolate (different percentages, even different normals like Dove, Ghiradeli and Hersey's) and have teens vote on their favorite…
We did homemade Valentine's cards last week, using mixed media and three-dimensional paper cutting. Very simple and fun.
This week, we'll be making felt fortune cookies in Valentine's-appropriate colors. They're super easy and make great little gifts for teens to hand out to their friends.
I LOVE the brown sugar molded chocolate idea. Another V-day snack idea: Lay pretzel rounds on a baking tray. Top each with a Hershey's Hug (the milk and white chocolate striped Kisses). Melt the Hugs to the pretzels, then top each with an M'n'M. Pop in the fridge or freezer to harden. Cute, delicious, and incredibly easy to make.
We are going to make duct tape roses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoJI0KfJXB8
I like these, they’re simple and easy to make but I don’t understand some of the foods on the heart bookmark.