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It's completely up to the creator in
this craft. You decide how easy or challenging it will be, and how long it
will take. All you need are some old magazines, construction paper, and glue
and you can make these fun Valentine hearts!
You will need
poster board
construction paper
old magazines or catalogs
scissors
glue stick
Note: poster board can be replaced with construction paper, but construction
paper is not as sturdy and will not hold up as well.
Base
Cut a piece of poster board to the size you want to work with, we used a
square foot piece (12" x 12"). Draw a heart near the center of your poster
board. To get a perfect heart, fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise,
then cut out half of a heart OR
print this.
Unfold and you have a complete heart shape, trim if needed. Trace around
your pattern with pencil onto the poster board. Draw 4 lines from the edge
of the heart extended outward to the edge of the posterboard to divide the
background into sections.
Prep
Tear out magazine or catalog pages that have mostly color and not much text,
laundry and cereal ads are usually great for this! Tear pages into small
squares by tearing into strips first, then into small pieces from the strips.
Keep colors separated. We used goldenrod, green, blue, and pink for the
background, and red for the heart.
Gluing
Begin with background colors first. Using the glue stick, apply squares in
a tile fashion (next to one another) in one of the quartered sections of
the background. Complete the color. Do this for each section until background
is complete. Remember, the beauty of this project is that perfection is not
required! Once the background colors are in place, fill in your heart with
red squares.
Framing
To make the frame, cut four 1"-wide strips of construction paper in your
choice of colors. We duplicated our background colors and set them in contrast
with the background. For example, we started with a green frame strip on
the left side because the green mosaic tiles were on the right side, and
so on. Glue in place and over lap at each corner as shown in photo.
Figure
2
For the Younger Set
For younger children, it is not necessary, and not recommended, to tear pieces
so small. Allow the children to tear pieces in whatever fashion they choose
(lengths, clumps, blobs, etc.) and let them at it! The larger pieces are
much easier to manipulate for smaller fingers. Take a look at Figure 2, designed
completely by my 6 year old daughter, Kristen. Larger pieces are also better
for the younger crowd because their attention spans are limited. The project
involving small squares took approximately 45 minutes for an adult.
See the heart Alyssa, one of our 6 year old readers, made by
clicking
here! Have fun!
About the Author
Amanda Formaro is the entrepreneurial mother of four children. She is also the owner of FamilyCorner.com
Magazine at http://familycorner.com Subscribe to her free kid's craft
newsletter, Busy Little Hands, by filling out the form on the left side
of this article
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