make hearts for Valentine's Day picture

 

Welcome to another Wacky Workshops project – 4 fun ways to make hearts for Valentine’s Day.

Hearts are a great shape to use in art projects with children as they are easy to draw and incorporate a few different elements – curves, lines and points.

There are so many more ways to use hearts than just drawing them though.

 

MAKE HEARTS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – WOOL WRAPPED HEART

 

make hearts for Valentine's Day picture

 

This project to make hearts for Valentine’s Day is a wonderful way to promote focus for kids who are all too keen to jump from one project to the next.

The wool must cover the wire completely – and that takes a bit of time – before you can make the inner design.

MATERIALS

  • Wire
  • Pliers
  • Wool

METHOD

  • Cut a length of wire and twist the two ends together to form a circle.
  • Push the wire into a heart shape.
  • Tie an end of the wool to the wire heart and start winding it around the shape so that none of the wire is showing. You can opt to go around the shape several times if necessary.
  • When the heart shape is covered, crisscross the wool to make a pattern within the shape.
  • Finish at the top of the heart and tie off the wool, leaving a length for hanging the heart.

 

MAKE HEARTS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – STAINED GLASS HEART

 

make hearts for Valentine's Day picture

 

This is one of my favourite projects to do with young children. Once you set it up for them, they have fun playing with the different coloured paper and creating their own artistic ‘stained glass. You can create any shape, not just make hearts for Valentine’s Day (we often do butterflies).

MATERIALS

  • Contact paper
  • Tissue paper – various colours, torn or cut into small pieces.
  • Cellophane, various colours, torn or cut into small pieces.
  • Scissors
  • Black marker
  • Sticky tape

METHOD

  • Cut the contact paper so that it is double the size of the shape you want to end up with.
  • Lift a little of the backing paper and then tape the contact paper, sticky side up, to the table.
  • Pull back more of the backing paper so that half of the contact paper is exposed.
  • Add more sticky tape to stop the contact paper from moving.
  • Have the child cover the exposed contact paper with the colourful tissue and cellophane pieces. They can do this randomly or try to create patterns.
  • When they have covered the contact paper, remove the rest of the backing paper and fold the clear contact over the top.
  • Draw or trace the shape you want to make (in this case hearts) and cut them out.
  • Have the child trace around each shape created by the coloured paper with the marker to give the stained glass effect.

These look lovely attached to windows with a little double side tape but are also great as hanging decorations.

 

MAKE HEARTS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – HEART-SHAPED CREATURES

 

make hearts for Valentine's Day picture

 

This is a fun way to encourage kids to become creative thinkers. The heart shape can be used in so many interesting ways.

Put a few together of varying sizes and you can create pictures of something completely different.

I often ask my students to come up with as many different animals to create as they can think of. 

This activity works for really young children and older kids as well. The older children can opt to draw their heart shapes or cut out their own shapes from different coloured paper.

Younger children can practice their tracing (using cookie-cutter heart shapes) and scissor skills and really young children can be supplied with various sized hearts and a glue stick to create their own picture.

 

MATERIALS

  • Paper
  • Coloured pencils or markers
  • Coloured paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue

METHOD

  • Experiment with placing hearts in different positions to create new images.
  • For example, a heart on its side can become a fish fin, or fish lips.

 

make hearts for Valentine's Day picture

 

  • Encourage the child to see how many different creatures they can make using heart shapes.

 

MAKE HEARTS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – THE HEART PENDANT

 

make hearts for Valentine's Day picture
I get so many compliments when I wear this necklace the Goddesses helped me make

 

What kid doesn’t love to play with Play-Doh? When you offer them the chance to create with air dry clay, it takes the fun to a whole new level as their creations keep their shape.

There are so many fun things to be made with clay. Roll it flat and use cookie cutters to create shapes to make all kinds of decorations, and even jewellery.

Or, hand build your own pendant to give a loved one for Valentine’s Day.

 

MATERIALS

  • Air-dry clay. This can be found in cheap shops and craft stores.
  • Cardboard or wooden board to work on. Clay will stick to most surfaces which means creations get destroyed if you have to move them before they are dry.
  • Something to cut the clay. I like to use thin wire as it goes through the clay really smoothly. You can make a handy cutting tool by tying large buttons onto the ends of a length of thin wire. Then you just pull this through the end of the clay to cut a piece off.
  • Paint or nail polish.
  • Ribbon

METHOD

  • Play with a piece of clay in your hands for a little while to make it more malleable. NOTE: This is also super relaxing. There’s something about the feel of clay…… Don’t take too long though. Air-dry clay dries quite quickly and starts to crack.
  • Roll the clay between your palms to form a sausage shape.
  • Place the clay on a board and start rolling it into a long roll by pressing lightly with the tips of your fingers on the top of the clay. As the shape grows longer, move your fingers in and out along the length of it to keep the roll even.
  • When the sausage shape is about 15-20 cm long, pinch each end, scuff up the ends with a toothpick and add a drop of water (this helps adhere the clay to itself) and pinch them together.
  • Manipulate the shape into a heart.
  • Next comes the hard part – waiting. It can take several days to a week for the clay to be completely dry, depending on the weather.
  • Once it is dry, colour it using paint or nail polish. Add a ribbon to create a beautiful pendant.
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If you’d like some more fun ideas for Valentine’s Day, check out my Pinterest board.

Happy crafting and have a gleeful week, Tamuria.

 

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