We’ve had a busy few weeks making valentines cards and gifts for my son to give to his loved ones. These little handmade berry heart gifts have been drying on our shelf for a lot longer than planned but we’ve finally got around to painting them. I think they look pretty cute and my son was really pleased with them (and himself) too! They’re really simple to make and are perfect as handmade gifts for valentines day, mothers day and many other occasions! You can use either Salt dough or clay, We used air drying clay as we have a tonne to use up but salt-dough works great too, you will just need to bake them until they are solid enough to paint!
You will need
Clay or salt dough
Red, yellow, green paint and paintbrush
Card/paper
Scissors
Knife (for cutting out shapes)
Ribbon
Hole punch
First you will need to create your heart shapes. We usually roll out our clay (or salt-dough) and then cut out a paper heart to use as a template to cut around. Once you have your heart, pierce a hole in the top centre so you can thread your ribbon through later on. If you used air drying clay they will need to be put aside for 1-2 days however if you used salt dough just pop them in the oven and bake until dried and hard.
Once dry, coat them in red paint and allow to dry.
Splodge some green paint around the top centre to make the stalk and then use the end of a paintbrush or a q-tip to dot on some yellow seeds.
Cut out your tag shape and use a hole punch to make a hole at the top. Take your chosen ribbon and thread it through the hole in your berry and then through your tag. Secure the two loose ends by tying them in a knot.
Add your special message to your tag and all that is left to do is gift your berry to a loved one!
If you’ve followed the blog at all you’ll know that i absoloutely love making keepsakes. They’re a beautiful way of looking back at previous stages of life and they really show how much our children have grown and developed over the years. We’ve made a couple of these cute little hand print bowls for my son to give to some special people for valentines day (including myself!). I think they’re absoloutely gorgeous. These bowls will definitely require a grown ups help as you’ll need to use a knife, but they really are quite simple and so much fun for kids to paint!
You will need
Air drying clay (alternatively you could use salt dough and bake them) Red and white paint Knife Paintbrush Q-Tip
Take two equal sized lumps of clay and roll them into two equal balls, Roll them out into flat disks. Next you will need to cut out your two hand prints. The easiest way we have found to do this is to draw around my sons hands on a piece of paper, cut out the hand prints and use them as a stencil to cut around with a butter knife.
Now mould your hand prints into a bowl by overlapping them at the palms and then pulling the fingers round to overlap. You can use a bit of water to act like glue if your clay isn’t securing together easily. Bend the outer edge of your bowl upwards. You may need to rest it upgainst something to keep the edges turned up whilst drying. put your bowl aside and leave it to dry for 1-2 days until solid.
Once dry, coat your entire bowl in red paint.
Now all thats left to do is add the final decorations to your bowl. We dipped a q-tip into white paint to make the spots and heart. Leave to dry and you’re finished! Such a gorgeous keepsake to display and treasure or gift to a loved one!
