Here’s a fun way for kids celebrate Valentine’s Day… all month long! Our family loves using calendars to count down the days of Christmas, so enter the Valentine Countdown Banner!
This is a cute and portable way to introduce a daily thought, treat or activity about love all each day in February. You know, kind of like an advent calendar, but for Valentine’s Day!
And because this love-inspired banner is made of fabric, you can use it year-after-year as part of your family’s Valentine’s Day decor!
This Valentine craft (with sew or no-sew options) is a snap to put together with your kids on a cold January afternoon.
Uses for Your Valentine Countdown Banner
The banner has 28 triangles, each with a heart-shaped pocket, and can be used in several different ways:
You could simply put a sweet treat (a Hershey’s Kiss, for example) in each day’s heart pocket.
You could hide a piece of paper with a scripture or thought about love in each day’s pocket.
You could have some sort of small activity about love to do each day.
Or, you could use this just with a spouse or significant other as a way to tell them, daily, how much he/she is loved (maybe one could leave little love sentiments in the odd numbered days, and one could leave them in the even-numbered days).
Our plan is to have a combination of treats, activities and written thoughts about love in the pockets. We’ve hung it in our family room, and we will pull out the little papers for each day (listing the treat, activity or written thought to share).
These will be simple, easy things to incorporate into our (already busy and full) days. If you would like to see our family’s list for each day’s contents, scroll down to the end of the post.
P.S. If the project sounds fun but you can’t commit to starting Feb. 1 or you don’t want to go the whole month, no worries! Just do what you want with it and enjoy the days you are able to use it. 
No stress.
How to Make This Valentine Banner Craft
You will need:
Two pieces of Valentine-themed contrasting fabric (a fat quarter-size of each should be enough)
2 (8.5 x 11″) pieces of both red and white felt (or whatever two colors match your fabric)
One spool of ½” thick ribbon (approximately 3 yards)
One piece of burlap (approximately a ½ yard)
Black craft paint
Thin piece of cardboard or file folder
Paintbrush
Sewing machine and thread (or hot glue, or a quick-drying fabric glue)
Disclaimer: I sewed my banner together. Those of you who know me well are gasping for air and clutching at your throats right now because you know that for years I proudly repeated the mantra “I DON’T SEW.” There’s a story behind this HUGE switch (which I’ll leave for another post), but just know that if you too subscribe to the “I DON’T SEW” mantra, you are welcome and at home here. Feel free (without guilt or judgment) to use glue. And if you are one of those ladies who has handmade her own clothes since age 7, I’m asking for grace for any imperfections you may find with my very beginning sewing skills. There we go. Grace all around.
Instructions:
1) Draw triangle and heart shapes on cardboard or a file folder. To make 28 felt triangles fit on a 9 foot piece of ribbon, I figured out the dimensions (see the picture below). I also figured out the dimensions of the inner burlap triangle and the heart “pocket.” This took me some serious time and made my little non-math brain almost explode.
2) Trace 14 large triangles on white felt, and 14 large triangles on red felt.
And put them into cute little piles.
3) Do the same thing with the burlap triangles and the fabric hearts. Enlist a kid or two to help with the tracing and cutting.
Look at these adorable hearts! I ended up marking the edges of the white hearts with a black sharpie so that they look more pronounced against the burlap and the red felt. You’ll see what I mean in the picture after this one.
4) Stack the triangles and hearts together and pin them, making two versions of little triangle/heart sandwiches (one set with white felt and one of the fabrics; another set with red felt and the other fabric). Alas, my photo here does not show the pin. But I promise you, seasoned seamstresses, that I did in fact have one on each little sandwich. And yes… do you see how the hearts are more outlined with the black marker?
5) Sew the sandwich together. First sew the burlap triangles to the felt triangles; then sew the hearts on top. I used my fancy applique stitch for my red hearts (which you will see later since only the white hearts are pictured here). But using a regular old straight stitch to attach the hearts (pictured) is totally fine too. Note: I sewed only around the side edges of the hearts so that it left an opening on top, thus creating a pocket.
6) Then alternate the red felt sandwiches with the white felt sandwiches into stacks.
7) Pin the sandwiches to the ribbon, alternating between the red and white. I placed the ribbon slightly on top of the sandwiches so that it would be more visible.
8) Sew the sandwiches onto the ribbon.
9) Paint on the numbers 1 to 28 on the hearts.
If you make a mistake and write the wrong number, just glue another piece of fabric over it and try it again. Or again, AND again in my case. Sigh! Too many distractions as I was doing this. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.
10) Lastly, print out a list of papers for each heart pocket. If you want to see what I wrote (or just print out my copy) download the Valentines papers for banner PDF file. If you’d like to have an editable version of the file, click here for an Excel version of the file. Cut out each strip, fold them and place them in the appropriate pockets.
And that’s it! Your Valentine Banner is now ready and waiting to bring you and your family lots of lovin’ the entire month of February! Enjoy and let me know how you end up using yours!
Another Post on Valentines Day Crafts and Activities for Kids:
25 Ideas for Teaching Kids About God’s Love
Your Turn:
How will you use your Valentine’s Countdown Banner this year? Will you use the messages from the printable here, or create your own fun way to share about love with your family this Valentine’s Day?
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