DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Heart Bird Paper Craft

My daughter Kaitlyn's first comment when she saw this craft was that she wanted to make it blue like the twitter bird (which is what gave me the idea for the message "Loving you is such a tweet". 

Whatever color you decide to make it, this bird craft made from hearts makes a great Valentine's decoration or card.

Tip 1:  Include the message "Loving you is such a tweet!"

Tip 2:  Glue the heart bird paper craft to the front of a folded over piece of construction paper or a doily to make a cute Valentine's Day card.

Tip 3:  Purchase fancy paper from the scrapbooking store and print the B&W version onto this for an extra fancy Heart Animal.

Tip 4:  Scotch tape a straw or popsicle stick to the bottom to make a bird puppet.

Tip 5:  Glue a small piece of sandpaper on the back to make a felt board character

Tip 6:  Cut construction paper into 4 inch wide strips as long as you can make them.  Tape two together to make even longer.  Measure around child's head to make a construction paper 'crown'.  Glue Heart Animal to front of the crown to make a Valentine's Day hat.

Materials:

• printer,
• paper,
• glue,
• something to color with,
• scissors.

Instructions:

• Print out the craft template of choice.
• Color (if making the black and white craft).
• Cut out the template pieces.  (The pieces on the template are at about the angle they will be on the finished craft. That should help you sort out which pieces belong where).
• Glue pieces together:
   
  • Glue the small orange heart into the dip of the large face/body heart to form the beak.
  • Glue one small yellow heart at an angle onto the body to form the wing.
  • Stack the remaining small yellow hearts on top of each other and glue to the tip of the large heart to form the tail.
  • Glue the legs with heart feet onto the bottom of the bird.

Option for mass-producing - young children:  Print out the B&W template.  Trace the pieces onto stiff cardboard (back of paper pads works well) or margarine/ice cream container lids.  Cut out to make permanent templates.   Allow the children to trace these permanent templates onto different colors of construction paper to make their animal

Option for mass-producing - older children:  Omit the templates.  Let the children cut out heart shapes in various sizes from colored construction paper (show them how to fold paper in half and then cut to make a perfectly symmetrical heart).  Let the children create their own animals by putting together hearts of different sizes (you can pre-make a few example animals to give them some inspiration).

Craft Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Heart Bird template    (color)   or    (B&W)

Printable version of these instructions