yarn hearts

Oh, I just love the way these turned out. I found the idea in none other than my latest copy of Family Fun. I just thought it was so cute. I love things made of yarn, and I had never heard of corn starch glue before, so I couldn’t wait to give it a try. I had all the things to do it. Gotta love projects like that.
(I think it’s sooo strange that the next day when they were all dry and I took pictures of Lucie holding her creations…..she is wearing the same dress as the girl in the magazine! WEIRD!)

The bird and I did this project while the bean was sleeping. Your hands do get really messy, which she thought was AWESOME! Other than that…. the mess was quite nicely contained. If I would have let the 20 month old participate, it would have been another story! 🙂

You need:

• Yarn
• Cornstarch Glue
• Water

• Heart-shaped cookie cutter
• Parchment paper

You first have to make the glue.

Combine ¼ cup of cornstarch and ½ cup of water in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Heat it over medium heat until it’s thick and translucent. Allow it to cool to the touch. (a few minutes)

I had to add more water (almost a cup) to mine towards the end of this because it seemed WAY too thick. I think as long as it’s gloopy when it’s done – it doesn’t really matter what the ratio is. Mine also never got totally translucent. It still worked perfectly. This whole process took about 15 minutes. Lucie loves to help measure and stir. 🙂

Now for the fun part…….

Cut yarn into foot-long pieces.

Place a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the shiny side of a piece of parchment paper. Push a piece of yarn into the glue to coat it. Pick up the piece and run it between a thumb and forefinger to remove the excess glue. Lay the yarn inside the cookie cutter.

(It looks like she is flashing a gang sign here) 🙂

Repeat with the other pieces until the yarn fills the heart shape in a thin layer. With clean hands, press the yarn flat. I found that if my hands were wet with water….I could press the yarn down easier. Gently lift off the cookie cutter and allow the yarn to dry hard, at least a day.

You can speed up the drying process by placing the hearts and parchment paper into an oven set to “warm” for an hour or two.

I had to “fix” only a couple of them by adding an extra piece of yarn so that the whole cookie cutter was filled up instead of all the yarn being in one pile. But, she was really able to do most of it herself, after she got the hang of it.

I couldn’t decide what to do with them once they were dry and hard. I thought about tying them to Lucie’s valentine cards for her class. Then I thought about making a Valentine tree by spray painting some twigs white and using these as ornaments. I thought of making them into bookmarks or magnets somehow and giving them to friends for Valentine’s Day.

But in the end, I made a garland. 🙂 I like it.