A Simple DIY Valentine’s Day Gift Kids can Make

By Grandma Sandy | January 29, 2025

Here’s a simple DIY Valentine’s Day gift kids can make. Flower frogs just require air-dry clay or polymer clay. You simply make a disk with holes and set the disk on a jar or vase to keep flower stems in place for a bouquet.

Flower frog, a disk with holes made with air-dry clay sits on a jar; the holes hold flower stems. This makes a simple--but welcome--DIY Valentine's Day gift. — **Flower frog made with air-dry clay sits on a jar; holes keep flower stems in place.**

Flower Frog: A Simple, DIY Valentine’s Day Gift

This is a lovely and useful gift that takes hardly any time to make. However, you need to plan ahead because air-dry clay will take about three days to harden. And then, you’ll have to give it a water-resistant finish. So, start well in advance of Valentine’s Day.

If you make your flower frog with polymer clay, no drying time is needed. Simply shape and bake. Baked polymer clay is naturally waterproof.

Materials Needed (Air Dry Clay Version)

A view of the flower frog sitting on glass jars, ready for an arrangement of flowers. — **Flower frog sits on a glass jar, ready for blooms.**

White, cream, or beige air-dry clay
Elmer’s glue or other PVA glue
Small jar to use as a vase

Tools Needed

Smooth plastic mat to use as a work surface (I use an old placemat)
Plastic wrap or parchment paper
Rolling pin
Biscuit cutter or cookie cutter slightly larger than the jar mouth (see alternatives below)
Lace (optional)
Jumbo plastic straw and/or discarded pen cap to make holes
Brush for brushing on glue

Mother's Day gift is a ring holder made with air dry clay and a homemade gift tag.

Alternatives: If you don’t have the right size cookie cutter, use a can, such as a tuna can, with lids cut out of top and bottom. Be sure there are no jagged edges when the lids are removed. OR use a plate as your guide and cut around it with a sharp paring knife or X-ACTO knife. This should be done by an adult.

Method

First, roll out a ball of clay between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Air-dry clay is sticky; plastic wrap will roll out more cleanly than parchment paper. Make sure plastic wrap is laid down smoothly to prevent wrinkles.

Press a disk of air-dry clay with a lace flower to create a lacy imprint on the flower frog. — **Press lace into the clay to leave a decorative impression.**

Next, use the biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out a circle shape. If you’re using lace, press the lace into the clay then peel it off to leave lace indentations.

To make holes for the flower frog, use a jumbo plastic straw. — **Use a plastic straw to make holes.**

Now, using a straw or pen cap, press holes into the clay disk. As the straw gets clogged with clay, simply snip off the clogged part. If the pen cap gets clogged with clay, use a toothpick to clean it out.

Set the flower frog to dry on your plastic mat or other smooth, non-porous surface. Turn it over every day to help the drying process. After three days, the flower frog should be dry and firm.

Finally, combine Elmer’s glue with an equal amount of water and paint the bottom of the flower frog to make it water-resistant. When dry, paint the top of the flower frog. Give the frog two or three coats, for good measure.

Tips for Air-Dry Clay:

Learn some general tips for working with air-dry clay from wikiHow.
Check out my tips for working with air-dry clay.

Polymer Clay Version

Instead of using air-dry clay, you can make a flower frog from polymer clay. — **You can use Polymer clay to make this flower frog. Vase is a painted spice jar.**

To create a DIY Valentine’s Day flower frog gift with polymer clay, simply roll out the clay, shape and make holes, as with air-dry clay, and bake in the oven following polymer clay package instructions.

Making Valentines

A child of three makes Valentine's Day cards. — **Miss T at three, makes valentines with doilies, paper hearts, and stamps.**

Instead of a Valentine’s Day gift, you might want to help the grandkids make cards. Here are some we’ve made in the past:

Make valentine cards with a collage of tissue paper hearts. PLUS, you’ll find valentine ideas for the littlest ones in this post.

A collection of handmade valentines. — **Use tissue paper hearts, doilies and stamps to make these valentine cards.**

Send grandkids a homemade valentine kit so they can make valentines with you over zoom or FaceTime.

Valentines Day card can be made long-distance by providing your grandchild with everything needed and giving directions via FaceTime. — **Kids can make this DIY valentine with long-distance instructions and a kit from grandma.**

Experiment with a tubular valentine, decorating toilet paper roll tubes; roll up a message and tuck inside. Add some candy if you like. After Valentine’s Day, use these tubes to hold kitchen appliance cords.

Toilet paper rolls are painted and decorated; roll up a Valentine's Day message and tuck inside. — **Tubular valentines are wrapped in cellophane to keep a rolled-up message in place.**

Make valentines that can be gathered into a framed work of art afterwards. To do this, plan ahead by cutting blank squares to fit a frame; decorate the squares and glue to folded cards.

Design Valentines that can be gathered afterwards and recycled into a framable work of art. — **Remove the artwork from the front of the valentine cards the grandkids made and frame them together.**

Next Week: A Family Valentine’s Day Party

We’ll plan a family Valentine’s Day party. I started doing this when Miss T was born, setting a Valentine-themed table and giving inexpensive little gifts, and it has become a family tradition.

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