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Easy DIY Valentine Freight for Wooden Trains

February 12, 2014 By Jessica Petersen 19 Comments

Here’s one of my favorite things the Little Engineer and I came up with for the Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown layout:  DIY valentine freight to load into the Troublesome Trucks! I was just going for visual effect when I started on these easy-to-make felt hearts, but they have a nice, firm, and fuzzy tactile aspect that makes me want to pick them up and move them from car to car.  They feel more substantial than they should, like they might even last us a while. A year after originally writing this post, they still look great!

Easy DIY Felt Hearts: fun Valentine's Day freight for wooden trains from Play Trains!

This post was originally published on January 31st, 2013. It contains links to Amazon.com. If you click on one, we will receive a small commission — at no additional cost to you — on anything you buy at Amazon for a certain length of time afterwards. Read our disclosure policy for more details.

 

While the felt hearts look especially nice with wooden trains, these valentines would work with other kinds of toy trains as well. So if your Trackmaster or Take-n-Play trains are feeling festive this February, they could pull their own Valentine’s Day freight, too.

How to Make Felt Heart Freight

We used a pack of felt heart stickers that came in a nice variety of colors and three different sizes.

Easy DIY Felt Hearts: fun Valentine's Day freight for wooden trains from Play Trains!

Find two bigger hearts and one (or two) smaller heart. Stick the two bigger hearts back-to-back and put the smaller heart on top. You can put a smaller heart on the backside as well, or even stack multiple sizes on one side, but it’s optional.

Easy DIY Felt Hearts: fun Valentine's Day freight for wooden trains from Play Trains!

Ideas for Valentine Train Play

It doesn’t take long to fill a few freight cars with these cheerful valentines. The trains can deliver them from station to station, bring them to a big Valentine’s Party at Tidmouth Sheds, or give them to each other or their drivers. Maybe all the valentines on the Island of Sodor have gone missing — oh no! — and the engines have to hunt around the island to find them all. Or perhaps Sir Topham Hatt is looking for the perfect valentine for Lady Hatt, and he enlists Thomas’ help. That could be a fun way to practice following directions and identifying colors and sizes

Easy DIY Felt Hearts: fun Valentine's Day freight for wooden trains from Play Trains!

We’ve used the felt hearts in two different Valentine’s Day activities:

Book-inspired Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas & Friends from Play Trains!

Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends

Valentine's Day in Vicarstown: a book-inspired wooden train activity from Play Trains!

Building a Book-inspired Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown Wooden Train Layout

Train Books and Gifts for Valentine’s Day:

The Little Engine That Could’s  Valentine’s Day Surprise

Thomas in Town: Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown

Thomas’ Valentine Party

NameTrain Heart

More train activities and ideas for Valentine’s Day:

Train-Themed Valentine's Day Activities and Ideas from Play Trains!

Building a Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown Book-inspired Wooden Train Layout

You’ll find lots of ideas for decorating a wooden train layout for Valentine’s Day in this literacy activity, inspired by the Thomas & Friends book, Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown.

Train Valentines Round-up

Looking for train valentines for your little engineer to hand out? I had a hard time getting train valentines the first year I looked for them, so I tracked down as many as I possibly could to share here. Here are some great train Valentine’s Day cards available online, and a list of free printable train valentines as well.

DIY Train Track Valentines

If you’re looking for an unusual — and unusually pretty — train valentine for your child, these DIY train track valentines might be just the thing!

DIY Engineer Stripe Heart Pendants

These make beautiful gifts for train lovers (or the mothers of train-loving kids) for Valentine’s Day — or any other special day!

Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends

Another fun activity inspired by Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown. The Little Engineer still asks to play this one a year later.

DIY Felt Valentine Train Play Set

A pretty and engaging felt train play set that’s quick to make for Valentine’s Day.

Filed Under: Preschoolers, Train Obsessed, Train Set Accessories, Uncategorized, Valentine's Day, Wooden Train Play Tagged With: crafts, crafts for adults, DIY, freight, kids' crafts, Valentine's Day

« Valentine Counting Activity with Thomas and Friends
St. Patrick’s Day Freight for Wooden Trains »

Comments

  1. Mary Catherine says

    February 2, 2013 at 10:51 pm

    LOVE IT! Going to try this with my kiddo in the next week, I think. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 3, 2013 at 8:30 am

      Thanks! My stickers were a little tricky to peel, so for the ones the Little Engineer helped with, I peeled the sticker backs off for him.

      Reply
  2. Sugar Aunts says

    February 3, 2013 at 12:20 am

    I love these ideas! Thank you for sharing. I would also LOVE to invite you to share on our weekly link up party at Share It Saturday. We have lots of creative learning, crafts, educational ideas and more submitted each week. Yours would fit right in! I hope to see you there 🙂 http://www.sugaraunts.com/2013/02/share-it-saturday-5.html
    Colleen at Sugar Aunts

    Reply
  3. Sugar Aunts says

    February 3, 2013 at 12:22 am

    ahhh, I see this gorgeous idea is already there! Thanks for sharing with us. I love your ideas!! 🙂

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 3, 2013 at 8:31 am

      🙂 It’s always nice to be invited!

      Reply
  4. Nicole says

    February 4, 2013 at 8:24 pm

    What a wonderful idea!! I will be doing this for my boys this week some time! I pinned onto my Valentine’s Day Pinterest Board as well! Thanks for sharing!! Have a great week!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 4, 2013 at 10:09 pm

      Great! Thanks so much for stopping by!

      Reply
  5. Betsy says

    February 5, 2013 at 2:32 am

    I love your felt hearts! What a great idea. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 5, 2013 at 2:42 am

      And thanks for stopping by mine!

      Reply
  6. Tracey@We-Made-That says

    February 7, 2013 at 11:17 am

    Those hearts would be great for so many different projects/Valentines. What a great idea! Thanks for sharing on We Made That!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:15 am

      Thanks! They are pretty versatile. I’m planning to use them as objects to count in a couple activities next week.

      Reply
  7. OneMommy says

    February 7, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    Cute! We made a Christmas tree for our track, but I never thought of making a Valentine’s Day car.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:16 am

      Thanks! I don’t think I would’ve thought of it, either, if we hadn’t been making the layout to go with the Valentine’s Day book.

      Reply
  8. Carrie says

    February 8, 2013 at 1:49 pm

    So cute!! I love them! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:16 am

      Thanks!

      Reply
  9. Allison says

    February 9, 2013 at 4:40 am

    I love the genius yet simplicity of this! I’m featuring this post on The Sunday Showcase as well.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:17 am

      Thank you! Definitely feeling the love this Valentine’s week. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Rebecca says

    February 9, 2013 at 8:23 am

    That’s so cute and fun!

    Thanks for linking to The Sunday Showcase. I’ve pinned to our board.

    Reply
    • Jessica says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:17 am

      Thanks!

      Reply

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Jessica Petersen, author of Old Tracks, New Tricks
Hi, I'm Jessica! We're so happy you've climbed aboard the Play Trains! express. Next stop: a trainload of fun and learning for your little engineer!

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