Thursday, February 4, 2016

Salt dough glitter heart necklace Valentine's Day cards


Cam and I made these salt dough glitter hearts for all the girls in his preschool class. We originally intended to make these for his entire class but then realized that his little guy friends probably wouldn't be very excited to get one of these. So that's when I came up with the Star Wars light saber Valentine's cards. Not that boys and girls can't like either a heart necklace or Star Wars and vice versa but Cam and I just wanted everyone to be happy and we love to come up with ideas and craft anyway!



First we made the hearts out of salt dough.

The basic recipe is:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup water
Mix it all together and it makes a stiff dough. Roll it out and do whatever you want with it!
Bake at 200 degrees for two hours or more. However long it takes for them to dry out and become rock hard.

We used a cookie cutter to cut hearts out and then used a juice box straw to make the hole. You can also just use some sort of pointy object, like a pen, to make a hole.


Then Cameron painted them red and sprinkled gold glitter on top when they were still wet. When they dried I sprayed them with a clear lacquer to keep the glitter from rubbing off. You could also use Mod Podge or even just leave them as is.


Once they were completely dry I strung red yarn through the hole, tied a knot at the base by the heart to keep it from moving and then one at the top.

For the cards, I made the Baby Footprint Heart cards I did a few years ago. Instead of making the base cards out of card stock, I gave myself a break and bought a pack of blank cards at Joann's. It came with two shades of red and had envelopes. Perfect.


The lace doilies I picked up in the dollar section at Target. You can find them at any craft store too. I love these things! So simple, old fashioned and very Valentine-y.



Use a doily as a template to trace around. Place it an 1/8 of an inch from the card edge to allow for a tab where the card will remain attached.


Cut along the inside of the line and then horizontally once you get to the tab edge.
For more detailed instructions on this part, please read my Baby Footprint Heart Card post.


Now glue a doily to the front of the card using a glue stick. Turn the card over and glue another doily to the back, taking care to line it up with the one you glued to the front.



I didn't plan this but realized that the heart on the front of these doilies happened to perfectly frame the necklace hearts we made! Serendipity! So I decided to mount the heart to the front of the card using a glue dot.


Then I rolled the necklace part up and taped it to the inside with tape.



A white or gold marker looks great for an inside message. Cam can't write his name himself yet but he does love to practice writing by tracing so he signed all his cards this way. These cards are definitely more fancy than a typical kid's Valentine's card but they were a lot of fun to make. We love to craft and since it's winter in Ohio we certainly have a lot hours to fill in the afternoons! Cameron helped to make the hearts, paint and glitter them, glue the cards and of course signed all of them so he did a lot of the work. He is so excited to give these to his grandmas, teachers and classmates. Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day. Enjoy!





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