DIY Valentine "Gingerbread" House

So many kids enjoy decorating gingerbread houses at Christmas time, why not recreate this activity for another holiday? There are so many different types of candy out during Valentine's Day, it is the perfect holiday to create another "gingerbread" house. For these houses we swapped the gingerbread for graham crackers. This activity is relatively simple to set up and your kids will have a blast decorating their Valentine house! Click here to see the reel on Instagram. Full directions are also included below.

Supplies:

• graham crackers
• hot glue gun and glue
• frosting
• paper plate or cardboard

• variety of Valentine's candy and sprinkles  

Directions:

*Pro tip: although you won't be able to eat your house, hot gluing it together makes it more sturdy than frosting for little hands that are decorating. It also shortens the drying time for assembling the house by quite a bit*

Take 4 graham cracker squares (not the full rectangle piece) and hot glue them along their edges as the base of the house. Then, glue that down to your paper plate or piece of cardboard. Next, take 2 more squares and glue those on as the roof. If you want to fill in the opening, take a sharp knife and cut triangle pieces out of another graham cracker that you can glue on as part of the roof. Be sure to push gently, these do tend to break easily and might take a few tries before you get 2 that stay together. Glue those into the openings in the roof. Allow the house to dry for a bit before decorating. Give your child the frosting and candies and let them decorate their houses however they would like. Toddlers can totally participate in this as well. It can be helpful to spread frosting for them all over one section of the house at a time and let them put the candy on themselves after that.

Candy tasting while decorating is optional haha! Set these out to enjoy as an adorable homemade Valentine's decoration. Happy Valentine's Day!