14 Valentines Crafts for Seniors - Part 2

By Anna Hazard

View the Rest of the Series

Part 1 - Wreaths, Garlands, Ornaments, & More

Introduction

Here is the second half of Valentines styled crafts (also suitable for normal romantic decorations throughout the year) that are suitable for seniors, children, and those with arthritis or other hand dexterity or strength issues. Basic skills needed include the ability to cut, glue, or paint which can be accomplished with the help of tools such as easy action scissors, ergonomic paint brushes, and arthritis pen grips) Most crafts use a small selection of common household supplies or materials that can be easily gathered from the local grocery or craft stores.

Crafts

Cupid's Arrows

• These decorative arrows can be made from an assortment of materials depending upon what one has on-hand or can be easily obtained. Basic supplies include dowels, colored paper, glow sticks, feathers, washi tape, paint, cellophane bags, candy, drinking straws, or felt. The primary activities include cutting & pasting and thus these crafts are suitable for all with basic hand dexterity.
• Evite | Simple Simon & Company | Plucking Daisies | Home Made Interest

Valentines Heat Packs & Hand Warmers

• These hand warmers are no-sew varieties or have simple enough structures that fabric glue or heat bonding can be subbed in for sewing. All use rice as their heatable filling with materials such as felt, socks, or scrap fabric as the base of their coverings. Basic hand dexterity (or the use of arthritis tweaked scissors & glue guns)  is needed for the main activities of cutting & gluing.
• Sweet Tea & Saving Grace | Optimistic Mommy | Elegant Fashion 360 | Petit Lefant

Heart Pillows

• The techniques used for crafting these pillows are similar to the ones used for the Valentine Hand Warmers only on a larger scale. Pillow forms or blank pillows & cases can be used as bases to simplify the steps instead of building from scratch using stuffing & fabric. As this requires quite a bit of cutting, it may be necessary to include breaks in-between the steps to allow seniors to relax their hands & fingers.
• Sweet & Simple Living | Amy Allender | A Kailo Chic Life | The Flower Art (Youtube) 

Valentines Cards

• One of the hallmarks of this holiday are cards that are meant to be passed out amongst one's friends, family, and even acquaintances or work mates. To create cards with an added extra bit of zip & fancy, these tutorials use basic materials such as construction, wrapping, quilling, or origami paper as well as a variety of decorations including photos, stamps, hole punchers, stickers, and glitter. Basic hand dexterity is required to cut, fold, roll, paste and otherwise manipulate paper through stamping & hole punching.
• Alyssa & Carla | Design & Paper |  Busy Creating Memories | Origami Instructions

Valentines Card Holders

• Here are some tutorials for creating decorative card holders for all those upcoming Valentine's cards. Easily obtained household items such as disposable plates, empty egg cartons, tissues boxes, cereal or cracker boxes as well as large bottles (such as those used for Chlorox or vinegar) are used as the bases with a variety of common decorations such as stickers, ribbons,  pompoms, googley eyes, craft foam, and paint. Basic hand strength & dexterity for painting (through either a brush, sponge, spray can, or other easy-to-hold tool), cutting, and gluing are the main skills needed.
• Hefty.com | Porch.com | Paper Jewels | Adalou Vintage

Valentines Bouquets

• These Valentines styled bouquets come in a variety of styles and use a variety of common materials such as candy & lollipops, felt, pipecleaners, tissue paper, drinking straws, colored paper, skewers, and washi tape. Depending upon the exact type of bouquet being made, enough hand strength or dexterity will be required to push items into Styrofoam, glue, paint, as well as cut, roll, or fold fabric & paper.
• A Cowboy's Wife | KixCereal.com | Voyages of the Creative Variety | Hello Little Home

Valentines Vases

• Create a fancy decorative Valentines vase for your craft bouquets or for other flowers & items that may already be on hand.  As all of these tutorials use breakable items as their bases (glass mason jars, bottles, or empty vases), crafters will need enough manual hand dexterity to not be in danger of dropping the vases. Other skills required include cutting, gluing & pasting, painting (with either brushes, sponges, paint pens, or spray cans), or the ability to wrap tape or string around objects.
• One Artsy Mama | Mason Jar Crafts Love | View from the Fridge | Brit.co