Saturday

Valentine Salt Dough Heart Garland


I'm not one of those bloggers who changes my decor all that often. I basically like to get something in a spot and leave it there to be dusted around.

Every once in a while the mood strikes me to make something to suit the upcoming occasion, which in this case is Valentines Day unless you want me to do a little Ground Hogs Day decor? 

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com 

Ummmm, no, I don't think so. 

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

I was spying all sorts of cute Valentine crafts and the ones I seemed most drawn too were little envelopes. They required scant artistic ability, and I happened to have a whole box of tiny envelopes. Why, I don't know, garage sale a lifetime ago probably.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

At Christmas I made salt dough ornaments and really enjoyed what is basically like playing in clay, so I decided to make another batch and use the variety of heart shaped cookie cutters I have, for my version of conversation hearts.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

I added red food coloring right to the dough, and apparently skipped over the part of taking any rolling of the dough action shots. I think you can use your imagination to picture what that looks like. 

I also wanted some gray hearts as well, not black because I'm told black hearts are cold and do not spell love. Certainly nothing like my own heart.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com
Black paste coloring would have been the way to go but I didn't have any of that, liquid worked decent. I could have painted the hearts after baking to any color, but this was sort of an experiment, plus I'm an impatient crafter and wanted to complete the project in warp speed.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

The end of a chopstick was used to make double holes so the red and white twine I intended to use would thread easily through. That didn't actually happen - the easily part- some of my holes were not well made.

I had to thread the twine onto a large needle and poke them through. More time consuming than I would have liked.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com
My salt dough is baked at my ovens lowest temp, which is 250*, for 3 hours, then I turn the oven off and just leave the pan in there till I'm ready to get back to the project.  You can also air dry them.

An old set of stamps was used to put valentine-ish sayings on, and I did this before baking. It could also be done using a stamp pad after, but I wanted indentations in the hearts.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com
I also sanded the baked items with a sanding block to knock down any rough spots after they were cooled.

The whole color scheme was decided because I had a Christmas fabric fat stack that I didn't use, and since I'm not someone who sews, having fabric around to pick from isn't really an option.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

I thought the black, red and white would work fine so I cut out some small hearts as well as thin strips to tie on between some of the hearts but not all.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

One Elmers Glue stick provided fast stick-um on the backs of the hearts, and colored pencils supplied the easy broken lines.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

You might notice that there is white in the cracks and crevices. I waxed the hearts with white lime wax, and on the white hearts I used a sharpie.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

The whole project took more time than I thought because when it came time to thread and space them measuring was involved and I hadn't made an even amount of envelopes or hearts.
Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com

The garland ended up being 7 1/2 feet long, and it's nothing over the top, just a sweet something something to let people know Valentines Day is coming.


 
The items needed:
Salt Dough recipe (below)
Food Coloring or Paint
Very small amount of fabric
Little envelopes 
Twine
Red and Black pencils or whatever
 1 amazing Elmers Glue Stick 
and if you want to wax them like mine, some lime wax, otherwise I think I would still use maybe a clear wax as it gives them a bit of a finished sheen.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com


Salt Dough Recipe's are all over the internet, they are not rocket science either, but below is the one I use.

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com 
Salt Dough: 

1 rounded cup of flour (I use regular unbleached)
1 cup water (add more flour if too runny, or don't add all the water at once to reach a consistency you like)
1/2 cup salt
 
Mix, roll, cut out, place on parchment paper in 250* oven for 3 hours. 
If you add paint, use a little less water, and mix the paint with the water before hand so it blends in easy. Knead the dough till it feels soft and pliable. It should not be sticky at all.
 
For my Christmas ornaments I also added 1/2 cup of white Fusion Mineral Paint, they came out slightly whiter.

Salt Dough Christmas Moose Bliss-Ranch.com

Salt Dough Valentine Heart Garland Bliss-Ranch.com




Follow on Bloglovin

6 comments :

  1. I love everything about these hearts and envelopes! In years past I've always had a Love, Life & Friendship Valentines Day party for my lady friends. Waiting for the day we can all get together again and if I start now, I can have these ready next year! Thanks so much for your post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is so cute! I love the idea to make the hearts resemble conversation heart candies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Adorable. What a sweet old fashioned craft done Bliss-style.

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are adorable!!! I was looking for something to make for valentines day and this came up, so glad it did! Hope you are doing well

    ReplyDelete

I read every.single.comment. If comments are turned off on a post it's due to spam, so drop me an email instead BlissRanchBoss@hotmail.com.

BB
Disclosure Policy for Bliss Ranch:
From time to time there might be a written review of services or products on this blog for which Bliss Ranch may or may not have received that service or product for free. Receiving a product or service for free or at a discount will never dictate what is written on this blog or guarantee a favorable review. All opinions here belong to Bliss Ranch and Bliss Ranch alone. Bliss Ranch is not monetarily compensated to write anything on this blog... period! For the complete privacy policy please see the tab at the top of the blog.