Sticky Hands, Warm Heart

Since Valentine's Day is fast approaching (this Monday!), the kids and I made a few hearts to give our mantel a little love.  We created these funky hearts using string and a gluey mixture, baked them, then strung our new art above the fireplace.

We followed the directions for this craft, "Sticky Hands, Warm Hearts" from the Family Fun magazine by Disney, as seen below:

Materials 
Yarn, Heart-shaped cookie cutter, Parchment paper, Cornstarch glue, Water

Instructions

1.  First, make the glue by combining ¼ cup of cornstarch and ½ cup of water in a saucepan and stirring until smooth.

2.  Heat the mixture over medium heat until it's thick and translucent. Allow it to cool to the touch.

3.  Cut yarn into foot-long pieces.

4.  Place a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the shiny side of a piece of parchment paper. Have your child 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.

5.  Repeat with the other pieces until the yarn fills the heart shape in a thin layer. With clean hands, press the yarn flat. Gently lift off the cookie cutter and allow the yarn to dry hard, at least a day.

6.  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.

We did the speedy drying procedure using the oven (#6).  We're (okay, maybe it's just me) a little impatient and wanted to hang our hearts asap!  The kids had a blast working on this fun (and messy) craft.... definitely worth the mess.