Faux Lace Heart
Well, it's not exactly faux lace, but it does kind of look lacey. This little heart is another one of those crafts that you can make as hard or as easy as you want. This particular version is strictly for older kids because of some of the materials used.
What You'll Need:
- Cardboard
- Elbow macaroni
- White glue
- Pink acrylic paint
- Metalic green and silver pigment ink (I used Ink DotsTM from InkadinkadoŽ)
- Heat gun
What to Do:
1. Cut a heart shape from cardboard.
2. Spread a layer of white glue over the surface of the cardboard heart and arrange the elbow macaroni on top of the glue. As you can see from the picture, we tried to give our heart a rounded, loopy pattern. When finished, let the glue dry completely.
3. Paint over the macaroni and the cardboard with pink acrylic paint. Be sure to get down into the nooks and crannies as much as possible. Let dry completely.
4. Brush the metalic green pigment ink over the macaroni creating a greenish ring on the heart. Brush the silver pigment ink over the middle of the heart. This will highlight the edges of the macaroni and give it a little dimension. When done, heat set the ink with the heat gun.
Heat Setting: If you're familiar with rubber stamping or scrapbooking techniques, then you already know what to do here. If you're not familiar with the term, all it means is that you need to apply heat to the pigment ink to make it permanently attached to the surface. In this case, applying your heat gun for 30-60 seconds should do it.
If you don't have a heat gun, you can use a blow dryer. Put it on the high setting and direct it on the ink surface for a minute or two (depending on the blow dryer) until the ink no longer rubs off on your hands. If you use a blow dryer, you'll have to hold down your heart so it doesn't blow away as well.
Variations:
I've included this project in the Little Kid Crafts section because you can easily adapt it to younger kids.
Simply change the paints to tempera paints and omit the ink step.
Use different types of macaroni instead of just elbow macaroni.
Use glitter instead of pigment ink.
Put a macaroni decoration on both sides of the heart, poke a hole in it, and hang it from the ceiling.
