Don't Play With My Heart, A Valentine's Day Craft

Another fun Valentine's Day craft we made uses Play-Doh. My kids love play-doh, so they were really excited to make this.

You will will need:

• Play-Doh (red, white, pink, and purple work well for Valentine's Day)
• Ribbon
• Straw
• Rolling pin
• Wax Paper, optional
• Heart cookie cutter
• Stamps or objects with raised designs

Directions:

1. Take the play-doh out of the container and stretch and play with it until it is a little more pliable.
2. Roll flat using a rolling pin. I placed a piece wax paper down before rolling out the play-doh so that it would not stick to the surface.
3. Use the cookie cutter to cut out shapes. If it sticks to the cookie cutter, use your finger to gently poke it out.
4. Cut out a hole at the top of the heart with the straw.
5. Press objects onto heart to create designs. I used buttons, play-doh stamps, a plastic bowl, and the spiral top of my recipe card holder. Bernardo liked to use the straw to create holes all over the heart. You could also use a toothpick to gently write on LOVE.

6. Set aside to dry. The drying time depends on the thickness of the heart and how dry the dough was before you made the craft. If the heart is really thin, try setting on a piece of wax or parchment paper for about 12 hours. Flip over and let the other side dry. For thicker pieces, place on an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet and bake at 150 degrees F. I baked ours at 150 degrees F for almost 5 hours and they still weren't dry. I then upped the temp to 200 degrees F for 30 minutes. This helped a lot. I let some the hearts air dry, which took about 5 days.
7. Once dry, tie a ribbon through the hole. The hearts could be used as a necklace for Mom or Grandma, an embellishment for gifts, or decorations for the house. The necklace will be delicate, so it's more of a memento type of gift. However, you could place it in a mold (or a muffin tin) and cover in resin. Once the resin sets, you could attach the needed pieces to make it into a pendant and make it into a sturdier necklace.

Optional: Once the play-doh is dried, you can paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on to give a little extra shine. All of the hearts above have Mod Podge, except for the pink heart in the middle top row.