These sweet little heart-shaped cuties are a fun and easy love bug Valentine craft for kids and adults.
Children from toddlers to teens are sure to love this cute love bug craft and gift idea that kids can make for Valentine’s Day. Gather some pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and foam hearts to make these sweet little Valentine’s Day love bugs. Scroll down to learn how to make these adorable heart love bug crafts two easy ways!
Related: Love Bug Craft Ideas for Kids
Related: Thumbprint Heart Glass Magnets Craft
Valentine’s Day Craft for Kids: Make Some Love Bugs to build fine motor strength!
Making love bug crafts is a fun way for kids to develop their fine motor skills. Fine motor activities like this can help strengthen the small motor muscles of the hand. Developing these small motor muscles helps children prepare for writing and more detailed types of handwork such as learning to sew and knitting.
Update: A company copied this valentine’s day love bug idea and made a love bug kit with thinner 3D hearts. Yes, really!? And no, they did not compensate me for my idea! They copied our pictures and the colors we used, but they just aren’t quite as cute as the valentine love bug crafts that my daughter and I made, are they?
Related: Salt Dough Handprint and Footprint Heart Keepsake Gift
Related: Slow Falling Hearts Sensory Bottle
Valentine’s Day Love Bug Craft Supplies
- 3D Heart-shaped foam counting blocks. When this post was published in 2015, my daughter and I found them at Target in the dollar section. They were in a pack of counting blocks, with other shapes included; square, circle, star, etc. If you can not find red 3-dimensional hearts, try THESE.
- Googly Eyes (Multi-colored)
- Pipe Cleaners – We used red and black pipe cleaners to make these cute little valentine love bugs, but you can also use pink, white or any other color you like.
- Glue
- Blunt Darning Needle (only needed for 3-dimensional foam hearts)
Related: Fingerprint Love Bug Valentine’s Day Cards
For each Valentine love bug craft you will need:
- 1 foam 3-dimensional heart or 3-6 thin foam hearts
- 2 pipe cleaners (cut into 8 equal sections)
- 1 pair of googly eyes
Related: Valentine Keepsake Gifts Kids Can Make
How to Make Love Bugs for Valentine’s Day
This post was originally written in 2015 and has been updated to include step-by-step love bug craft directions to make Valentine’s day love bugs with flat foam hearts, in addition to the 3D foam hearts.
Three Dimensional foam hearts can be hard to find, so we decided to included instructions to make these little cuties with the more readily available flat foam hearts as well. Scroll down to learn how to make this Valentine love bug craft using 2 different methods; 3D foam hearts or flat foam hearts.
As mentioned above, a company copied this idea and made a love bug kit with thinner 3D hearts. They copied our pictures and the colors that we used, but they just aren’t quite as cute as the little valentine’s lovebugs that we made!
Related: 2 Easy Ways to Make Pom-Pom Love Bugs
1. Set up and Prepare the Love Bug Craft for Your Children
- Cut each pipe cleaner into four equal sections so there are eight 1/4 sections of pipe cleaners for each heart love bug.
- They don’t have to be cut evenly, different lengths add character.
How to prepare a 3-dimensional heart to make a Valentine Lovebug Craft:
Use a blunt darning needle to poke three holes in the side of each heart. Poke two more holes on the top.
Note: There is no preparation needed if you are using thin foam hearts to make valentine love bug crafts.
2. Place glue and all parts needed for one heart love bug on a work surface.
- 1 3-D foam heart or 3-6 thin foam hearts
- Pair of googly eyes
- 8 1/4 sections of pipe cleaner
- Glue.
3. Demonstrate how to Make a Love Bug Craft
We have not one, but two love bug craft tutorials, just in case you can’t find 3D hearts! Use the love bug craft tutorials below to demonstrate how to make love bugs in two easy ways.
Young children are imitative creatures and like to see how to make a love bug craft before they make their own. It also can be helpful to have a completed love bug valentine craft nearby for children to refer to as they make their love bug crafts.
How to Make a Valentine Love Bug with a 3-D Foam Heart
- Place a dab of glue on the tip of each pipe cleaner, and put one into each hole to make the legs for the love bug. (A paper plate with a little glue on it makes this step easy for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners.)
- Bend the legs to create a knee and foot for each leg of your love bug craft.
- Curl the tips of each antenna to make the love bug face super cute.
- Glue googly eyes onto each love bug face.
How to Make a Love Bug Craft with 3-6 Thin Foam Hearts
- Glue 3-6 thin foam hearts together with a set of pipe cleaner legs in between each of the hearts. Make sure that each pair of lovebug legs is between 1-2 hearts.
- Allow time to dry before moving on to the next step.
- Bend each pipe cleaner leg to create a knee and foot for each leg of your love bug craft.
- Curl the tips of each antenna to make the heart-shaped lovebug face look super cute.
- Attach googly eyes onto the face of each love bug craft–use glue or self-adhesive googly eyes.
4. Invite Children to Make Love Bug Crafts for Valentine’s Day!
Related: Heart Shape Nature Scavenger Hunt for Kids
More Love Bug Craft Ideas for Valentine’s Day!
- 2 Easy Ways to Make Pom-Pom Love Bugs
- Fingerprint Love Bug Card Crafts
- BEST Love Bug Craft Ideas for Kids
Valentine love bugs are an easy fine motor craft for children. A Valentine’s Day love bug craft, such as this, also makes a great gift idea kids can make!
You may also like our “Thumb-Buggy” fingerprint love bug Valentine’s day card ideas.
Pop over to have a look at more of our favorite love bugs HERE.
You may also like this collection of love bug craft ideas and Valentine keepsake gifts kids can make. Both posts have Valentine’s day craft ideas perfect for kids from toddlers to preschoolers, teens, and adults.
For even more Valentine’s Day Ideas check out our Seasons & Holidays Page and the list of Valentine’s Day crafts and ideas below!
Learn more about Rhythms of Play HERE!
More Valentine’s Day Crafts and Ideas Kids LOVE!
- Valentine’s Day Crafts and Homemade Gift Ideas
- Thumbprint Heart Magnets
- Valentine’s Day Game: Cupid’s Arrow Toss by Playground Parkbench
- Stitched Felt Heart Favor Pouch & Keychain by Moms & Crafters
- Bubble Wrap Heart Decorations by Crafty Kids at Home
- Valentine Pet Project for Kids by Sunny Day Family
- Hand Knit Hearts by Nemcsok Farms
- Homemade Lip Gloss by Sugar, Spice & Glitter
- Thumbprint Heart Necklaces
- Kissing Hand Handprint Art
- DIY Keepsake Gifts for Him or Her
- Slow Falling Hearts Sensory Bottle
- Valentine’s Day Crafts and Keepsake Gift Ideas
- Thumbprint Heart Crafts and Gift Ideas (pictured below)
How cute! We always call my daughter “Little Love Bug” so she’d love making these!
Thanks! My daughter loves putting them together and playing with them. I’m sure your daughter is going to love them!
I’d love to do the heart shaped love bugs as a class project. Would you have the item # or link to purchase the heart shapes. I had no luck finding them at the store.
Thanks!
I am terribly sorry Jenn, I have not been able to find them again either! I purchased the ones I used in a package of foam shapes including the hearts in the dollar aisle at Target 3 years ago and have not found them since! Every year I look for them to add a link to them in the materials list so my readers can make them, and every year I strikeout. This year I did find a copycat craft kit using different hearts. I didn’t want to advertise a product that stole my idea and made it into their own craft kit, but I just may have to! I will go poke around again and see what I can find.
Ok. Thank you so much for the info! I found white styrofoam hearts on Amazon. I may try making these with them, but will keep an eye out for the soft foam too.
Glad you found something you can use Jenn. I bet they will be super cute!