Day 8-Valentine Count Down-Fun with Felt Hearts

In our house we LOVE wands! We make them just as a fun craft and even for Birthdays. I thought it would be fun to surprise my kids with new wands for Valentine's Day, in their Valentine Mailbox. I used my embroidery machine to make these, but it is totally unnecessary.
All of the wands that we have made before have just been felt that we cut shapes out of, by hand, and wooden dowels. Then, I've let the kids decorate theirs with glitter. I will be letting my kids decorate these with glitter, as well!
These are super quick and easy, and don't require much. All you need are dowels, felt hearts, and glue! Optional items are Elmers Glue and glitter (if you want to glitter yours), or any other embellishments that you choose. I put these together with hot glue, as it gives the kids a quick result when they make these with me!

Just lay one heart down on it's right side (so the wrong side is facing up). Lay a line of glue down from the center to the bottom of the heart. Then, lay the dowel on top of this line of glue. Next, I lay another line of glue on top of the dowel, just to the bottom of where the heart is. I lay the second heart on top, making sure it is lined up with the bottom heart. Notice that the dowel is actually quite large when making this and if you are not careful your hearts wont line up because of the bulge in the middle.
So, now both hearts are attached to just the dowel, in the middle. Next you place a line of glue from the top center of the heart and go to one side, about halfway down. Make sure to line up the hearts carefully when doing this. Then, you will place a line of glue to finish out along one side of the heart. Then, you will start at the top center again and glue the other side of the hearts together, meeting at the bottom at the dowel. When I do this I will turn the heart over a couple of times as I'm lining them up because it's easier to position it right with the large dowel in the center.
Finished. These can be used as is, or you would add the glitter at this point. For the glitter I have just used Elmer's Glue and any glitter that I have. A thicker line of glue when doing this part, will give the glitter more to hold onto and so it will be more glittery. These could be used for more than just wands for the kiddos to play with. In my preschool, I made one for each child and we use them as pointers. Anything to keep lessons more interesting, is a great thing in my book! Some kids just don't want to say answers out loud-ever. But give them a wand and they will point to the answer! These would also be cute in a bunch, as a centerpiece, or even as a teachers gift (they could use them as pointers, as well!) A last thought would be if you need a craft for the whole class. Make the wands up yourself, ahead of time (one for each child). Then, have them all arranged in a container (this would be a really cute presentation). Each child would take one for themself and then their part would be glittering them up! I know a lot of people don't like to use glitter at home, so here's a perfect way for your kid to glitter-at school! Personally, I love glitter and use it all the time!
Here are some of the possibilities for these wands. These are a few that my kids have done. We did princess wands for a Birthday party this year. Those ones we painted the dowels pink and then added ribbons underneath. We have a large family and they are always at our Birthday parties. Most of my nephews are boys so we just painted up the dowels to look like magicians wands, for the boys! They loved them!
Pencil Toppers
Here is another really fun thing to do with felt hearts. It's another thing I made for my kids to find in their Valentine Mailbox this year. It's along the same lines as the heart wands that I just showed you. These, however, are pencil toppers! Instead of hot glue I used felt glue on this craft. I really like this glue. I did not want the hearts stuck to the pencils, because then my kids couldn't use the erasures. So, I ran the felt glue along the sides of the hearts, stopping before the bottom of the heart, as this will be where the pencil will go into the pencil topper. I also ran glue along the area that would be to the sides of where the pencil would slide in. This was to stop the heart from just flopping around on the pencil and to keep the heart straight on the pencil!
You can see where the pencil just slides right into the bottom of the heart where I left an opening for it!
Again, I did use my embroidery machine, but it is not necessary. You can easily just cut out your heart shapes and decorate either by embroidering by hand, adding any embellishments you want (I can totally see raiding my scrapbook embellishments for this. Wouldn't gems, flowers, brads, or ribbons be too cute? I kept mine minimal because I have a Son and he wouldn't want it all gussied up!).
This would also be a fun gift for a teacher (or really for anyone you are giving Valentine's to)! I love how they turned out and will be making more of these in the future. How easy will eggs be for Easter, or green shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day! Flags for the 4th....Oh, this will be fun!
Rebecca

Linked to Treasures for Tots.