Recycled Glitter Hearty-Heart Ornaments {tutorial}

I made these hearts last year because my kids are always begging to decorate for every season- just like our friendly retail stores. They cut out a bunch of hearty paper things too. I'm not into hearts or red, but I'm all about my kids... so here's to sparkly heart ornaments!

All three kids have been sick this week and stayed home from school. So when I dug out our Valentine decor (finally!), it put smiles on their faces...

 All You Need for Materials {sort of tutorial}

• cardboard (I used an empty cereal box)
• red or other colors of glitter (you can see in the photo below that I ran out)
• hot glue gun
• Mod Podge
• ribbon or string for hanging
• hole punch 
• scissors, of course

We're going to make some HEAVY HEARTS!

• Cut out as many hearts as you like, punch the hole first where it's going to hang.
• Apply hot glue to an area on your card board heart, press hot glue area into a "pile" of glitter. I did not hot glue the entire heart at once on one side unless it was small because I didn't want my glue to get cold and glitter to fall off. 
• Finish adding hot glue and glitter to one side, cool, and then add to the other side. (You can adhere with Mod Podge, but the hearts will not be as heavy as these babies.)
• After all the hearts were cool, I applied a layer of Mod Podge to seal on the glitter. (Who likes glitter all over? Not me.)
• Make sure you don't cover the hole for hanging.

Here's where we decided to hang our "Heavy Hearts" this year! 

Make Valentine's memorable for those you LoVe.

"Make our homes a safe place where each family member feels love and a sense of belonging. Realize that each child has varying gifts and abilities; each is an individual requiring special love and care." 

-Elder Robert D. Hales

Winter Wonderland 3-D Star {tutorial}

A little catching up... We made these in December (I have made 50+ they are so simple)! But they are fun to make year-round for all occasions with any paper. I first spied these stars as a 4th of July decoration at the Crafty Crow, I wanted to have the kids more involved and have them year-round and for Christmas.

From using this tutorial, check out the super easy

 3-D SNOWFLAKE here.

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This was the perfect winter kid art project for a Saturday morning while Christmas music was playing in the background. It had just started to snow at our house and my kids stayed in their jammies (that’s what we call them) all morning, drawing and making a glitter mess while drinking hot cocoa. I think they enjoyed this little star project because they were able to project simple but fun ideas onto paper and then see them hanging so beautifully in such a short amount of time.

This sparkly(you can't see the sparkle snow in the photo, but it's there!) art project was featured in one of my favorite issues of the 

Sandbucket Christmas Issue 2012!

Simple {TUTORIAL}

 Items needed to create a snowy 3-D star:

2 white square sheets of card stock (any size)

markers – permanent markers work best (any drawing medium will do)

Mod Podge & brush

snow glitter, sequins,  anything sparkly!

hot glue (fast drying/cooling) or strong all purpose glue 

paper clips

hanging ribbon or string

 

• They can create any Winter Wonderland or Christmas design on paper that their heart desires! We used regular markers on stark white paper to create bright results. I think permanent works best because it doesn’t bleed when applying Mod Podge which is one of the steps towards the end of the process.

• Fold and crease each opposite corner, tip to tip, making a triangle. Open and repeat with the other two corners.

• Then flip over, fold and crease the straight sides of the square together. Open and repeat again with the top and bottom.

Your square should look like this, with four creases.

• Cut along the fold just enough to then fold to form half of the star point. You can estimate the first cut and then keep track on a little paper for the rest of the cuts. Finish cutting all four sides and fold to the center, creating four star points.

Will look like this on the back side. 

•  The first time I uses a strong multipurpose glue to adhere the fold flaps together. But then I discovered that hot glue won't "pop off" paper in cold weather, and is faster. Secure with paper clips and let dry. Repeat this step with the remaining star flaps. Finish your other square by completing all the same steps so you will have two stars to decorate next!

• Throw some snow glitter on your stars! Of course, this is their favorite step, making a fun glitter mess! We got out the Christmas sequins, snow glitter and other sparkly paint and went to town! We used Mod Podge to adhere all of the shimmery stuff and then after I applied another layer of Mod Podge so it wouldn't flake off all over my house. Nothing is worse than finding glitter in all the wrong places!

• After completely drying. Hot glue the stars together and hang!

My kids had a messy art party creating artwork that we could beautifully display through this Christmas and Winter season! 

Here's how to make the stars, now go cut out some SNOWFLAKES using this tutorial!