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DIY Dino-Mite Valentine’s Day Coloring Cards

DIY Dino-Mite Valentine’s Day Coloring Cards

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Craft these easy and adorable dinosaur-themed coloring cards for your child’s class this Valentine’s Day for an allergy-free, non-candy dino-mite activity!


Raise your hand if your child is in a class with a TON of allergies!

I believe my son’s classroom has about four or five serious allergies we have to keep in mind for every holiday, school party, and birthday treats the parents send in.

The news of these allergies was disappointing at first, but only because the minor convenience of being able to send in whatever we wanted with our children was taken away.

I started thinking it over with my husband, though and felt grateful that we weren’t in those parents’ shoes.

Trying to imagine what it must be like for parents who have to worry day-in and day-out about allergies -it must be exhausting!

And then having to worry about not only what you are giving your child, but what they might be exposed to when they’re at school, a friend’s house, on a field trip, etc. 

My heart goes out to you guys!

I learned that one safe treat I could bring in that avoided the major allergies in the classroom were Blow Pops, in case you’re wondering.

I started paying attention to the birthday and holiday treat bags that other parents were sending in, though, to get ideas for my son’s winter birthday, Christmas, and spring holidays.

Most parents sent in treat bags filled with pencils, erasers, small toys, and other goodies for the class.

For Valentine’s Day this year, I wanted to create something with my Cricut that was both non-candy (since a lot of the classroom allergens can be found in candy and chocolate) and allergen-free. And that’s when I decided to make some homemade coloring cards!

My boys both love dinosaurs, so I figured this would be a great way to use up the extra sheets of white cardstock I had on hand, and create some easy DIY valentines for my kids to hand out without having to worry about dietary restrictions or allergies.

And let me tell you – for this being my first project using a pen with my Explore Air 2, I’m hooked!

It was incredibly easy to design and make – I’m so excited to share the design with you guys so you can create these for your child’s class, too!

*This post contains affiliate links, however, all opinions are my own, as always*. 

 

What Do I Need To Make These Coloring Cards?

Not much! All you need is…

For this tutorial, I’ll be using my Cricut Explore Air 2 machine, but this also works with the Maker machine as well.

Valentine’s Day Dino-Mite Coloring Cards Design

For these coloring cards, I used images and fonts available within Cricut Design Space.

Here’s the direct link to this project within Design Space so you can make these for yourself!

screenshot of dino-mite valentine's day coloring cards cricut design space mat

If you do not want to use this design and want to create your own (maybe you want a different theme, and that’s okay!), here are the two key Design Space elements you’ll need which can be found under the Images tab:

BTW, I’m using the Cricut font Haley for this project. It’s a gorgeous cursive font and I highly recommend it!

If steering clear of the dinosaur theme, feel free to browse through Cricut’s Images library to find designs or images you like.

Drawing and cutting with the Cricut Explore Air 2

To get your machine ready to draw and cut this design, you’ll need to be sure the proper tools are installed in the clamps, and your machine dial is turned to the ‘Cardstock‘ setting.

Load a black Cricut pen into your machine’s A clamp. Here’s a helpful video…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuRVUQODbUI

You’ll need to open the clamp and place the pen in the clamp. Push the pen down into the housing with a little force (see the video above).

Also, if you don’t already have the fine-point blade installed into the B clamp, do so at this time.

Place one piece of white 12″x12″ cardstock on your green StandardGrip mat and load it into your machine.

Now you’re ready to draw and cut your cardstock!

dino-mite valentine's day coloring cards cricut design space mat

This design is set up to fit 6 coloring cards on each piece of 12″x12″ cardstock, so for a class of 24, you’ll need to do this process four times to have enough.

Your machine will begin by drawing the dinosaurs and then writing the font.

When it’s done drawing, I like to hit the pause button so I can remove the pen from the A clamp and replace the cap so it doesn’t dry out. Then I resume by pressing the Cricut button on my machine.

I’ve learned this trick from a few fellow Cricuteers: try storing your pens upside down so they don’t dry out as quickly!

Remove the cardstock from your StandardGrip mat by placing the mat upside down and rolling it away from the paper.

If you try to peel your cardstock away from the mat like you would peel away vinyl, the paper will end up curling.

peel cricut mat away from cardstock to prevent paper curling

Once you have removed your cardstock from the mat, look each one over and remove any negative paper trimmings.

Have your child write their name along the bottom next to the From: text before placing the crayons so they have room to write.

Place two crayons in each card using the crayon holder holes.

 


And that’s it! Look how nice they turned out – I can’t wait for the boys to hand them out in class this February! I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial!

Be sure to tag me on Instagram (@slayathomemother) so I can see your creations.

*Post originally published January 2020, updated January 2023.

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Jess

Monday 8th of January 2024

Any chance you have this just as a PDF? So cute!

Danielle

Wednesday 9th of February 2022

I can't wait to make this for my kids' class, but the links to Design Space aren't working for me!

Corinne

Wednesday 9th of February 2022

Thanks for letting me know! Cricut must have changed the link with one of the new updates, I apologize, here's the link: https://design.cricut.com/landing/project-detail/5e0d256136faea06ac14de23 I've fixed the post links as well :). Enjoy!

Ruthie

Wednesday 9th of February 2022

Hi! These are so cute! When I click on the direct link to get into design space it doesn’t work!:(. And I can’t seem to find these in design space. Is this a free svg or no?

Corinne

Wednesday 9th of February 2022

Hi Ruthie! It isn't an SVG but it's a design in Design Space! I've corrected the link in the post, and here it is as well: https://design.cricut.com/landing/project-detail/5e0d256136faea06ac14de23

Tabitha Pellegrin

Tuesday 8th of February 2022

hi there! is there an option for sihouette studio?

Corinne

Wednesday 9th of February 2022

Currently it is only a Cricut Design Space design! That may change in the future :)

Randi Rucki

Friday 21st of January 2022

Hi! I was just wondering if there is anyway to do this on a Cricut joy? Or if you have any suggestions on how do so something similar? I just started crafting with the joy and would love to try and do this for the kids I nanny! Thank you!

Corinne

Monday 24th of January 2022

Hi Randi, thanks so much for the question! I've developed a Cricut Joy-friendly version, here is the Design Space link: https://design.cricut.com/landing/project-detail/61ef1ab28b513e00f5c12c90 - Hope this helps! :)

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