With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, why not start your heart craft projects? We found some of these to be perfect to do with young children or even to make for lovely little gifts.
A Sweetheart of a Soap
Here’s a sweet twist on soap-on-a-rope. The simplest route to your heart soap is to buy and melt red or pink 100 percent vegetable glycerin soaps, let the stuff re-harden on a cookie sheet, then cut it with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Carefully punch a hole with a hole puncher, string a ribbon through and you have one sweetheart of a soap.
For those who want a more “homemade” product, buy plain unscented, uncolored glycerin (available in one-pound cylinders) and add your own fragrance oils and colorings while melting.
Tip: We found it much simpler (especially when working with children) to melt the soap in the microwave rather than on the stovetop, which is often recommended by craft books. Either way, it will take some trial and error to figure out how long to heat the soap before it melts. You don’t want it to boil (or your soap will harden with lots of bubbles). If the soap won’t melt, it’s not 100 percent glycerin or it’s hard milled.
Heart-Shaped Cupcake Toppers
A homemade treat will taste even sweeter when topped with a playful love note. Print these hearts onto card stock or handmade paper. Cut out heart shapes with decorative-edge scissors and add a message to your valentine or their initial. Embellish with self-adhesive rhinestones for a glam touch. Finally, tape a toothpick or small dowel to the back of the heart and insert into cupcake.
“Sugared” Heart Banner
These “sugared” hearts look good enough to eat! To create banner, print this PDF onto card stock and cut out hearts. Lay the hearts on a flat, disposable surface, such as newspaper or a plastic dropcloth, and coat the patterned side with spray adhesive. While the glue is still wet, dust each heart with crystal glitter and allow to dry. Gently tap hearts to remove the excess glitter and glue them to grosgrain ribbon. The banner can be as long as you wish by adding more hearts, and the hearts can be attached so the banner hangs either vertically or horizontally.
Sweet Spot Hearts
To make, cut a heart from a strip of candy dots, and glue it to a piece of construction paper. With scalloping scissors, cut construction paper to create a border around the heart
Heart Bookmark
To make the diminutive page keeper: Create a template of a heart, about 1 1/2 inches wide. Cut out with a utility knife, and trace onto heavy card stock. Copy it at 80 percent, cut out, and trace onto decorative paper, such as wrapping or origami paper. Cut out both hearts, and use a glue stick to secure smaller patterned heart to center of the larger one; let dry. Finally, trace bottom half of inner heart with a utility knife, cutting through card stock beneath.
Crayon Hearts – – – – The Write Card – – – – Valentine’s Day Candy Box