As some of you who visit the blog may have already guessed, this girl loves hearts, and what with it coming up to valentines day, its the perfect excuse to get crafty with hearts. Today I’ve decided to make some pretty sweetie jars with matching heart magnets.
The Jar is one I’ve had ready to decorate for some time. I brought a few of them on a bric a brac stall at a bootfair last year.
The hearts are made of paper mâché and already have the magnets attached. They are of a good size and once papered, look amazing on the fridge or a magnetic notice board. These can be brought from Hobbycraft and are available both in store and online.
So for this project I used 2 large heart magnets and 1 jar. (Pairing a jar with a magnet to make a gift set)
Both the gift set and Individual magnet have been decorated differently but were both extremely simple to create.
The first Tutorial is for my Retro Heart Magnet and Jar Gift Set.
You will need…
Medium size jar (the type with a glass stopper lid)
Large sized paper mâché heart magnet (Hobbycraft)
Funky heart Decopatch paper (Hobbycraft)
Ultra fine baby blue glitter
Mod podge (Gloss)
Thick – Satin blue ribbon (Baker Ross)
Bright red ribbon (Thin)
Dark red ribbon (medium thickness)
1 Red & 1 blue self adhesive button (baker Ross)
White acrylic Paint
Sweets or other items to fill jar
Tools…
Craft Knife
Scissors
3 Paint brushes (painting, mod podge, glitter)
Small sponge (to wipe excess mod podge)
Ruler
Pencil
First the heart magnet….
1) Give your heart magnet 2 coats of white acrylic paint as abase. Allow to dry in between coats and be careful not to get any paint on the actual magnet as it may affect how magnetic it is.
2) Take a sheet of your Decopatch paper (comes in a packet of three) and cut in half using a craft knife and ruler fir support. Place one piece aside for your jar. Now with a craft knife and ruler cut paper into squares so that you can easily piece them back together like a jigsaw.
3) With Mod Podge or Decopatch glossy glue get Decopatching. I’ve explain the art of using Decopatch to decorate almost any object or surface in numerous post here before. So, without going into to much detail I’ll explain in brief… Basically cover the heart in mod podge, lay the paper onto the heart and apply another layer of glue over the top. For this project you will want the pattern to be perfect (not all mix match) So join the paper together to form the pattern (like wallpapering).
Tips… Only apply the glue to the area you wish to cover, instead gluing each section as you go therefore avoiding any areas starting to dry and becoming tacky.
If you have small areas in need of covering, then patch them up with small strips of paper.
Now leave to dry.
Note. Decopatch Glossy Glue & Mod Podge (gloss) can both be used as a glue sealer and finish. Both glues dry clear and are both easy to use. I’m using mod podge as its much faster when drying.
4) Once dry add another layer of mod podge and leave it for around 20 minutes to dry.
5) Once dry take the dark red ribbon and run it around the sides of your heart starting at the tip. Cut any excess ribbon and then use the mod podge to add the ribbon to the sides of the heart adding a layer of mod podge over the top of the ribbon too.
Leave to dry for 20 minutes or so.
6) Once dry stick your self adhesive buttons to the front of your heart like so. Now place to one side.
Now for the jar….
7) Bring forward your other half of Decopatch paper and wrap it around your jar. Start around 5 centimetres down from the neck of your jar so that the paper stops 3/4 of the way up leaving a small area unpapered. Only once you are sure its right add mod podge directly to the jar applying the paper as you go. (Apply the paper as a whole by rotating the glass, gluing and papering as you go). You will notice that you have a little excess paper at the bottom of your jar. Don’t worry! This will be removed soon. Now, add a top layer of mod podge over the top of the paper (ignoring the excess paper) and leave to dry for 20 minutes. Once dry add another top layer of mod podge and sit to dry for the same amount of time as before.
8) Once your jar is papered and the mod podge is dry the paper will be stronger and look very glossy. Now use you scissors to remove any excess paper from the bottom of the jar as to tidy it up.
9) apply mod podge around the top section of paper like a boarder. It only needs to be as thick as your thin red ribbon. Wrap the ribbon around the top of the paper and wipe any excess mod podge quickly with a sponge, to avoid it drying. Now apply mod podge over the top of the ribbon again wiping away excess as you go. Leave to dry for around 15 minutes.
10) Now mix some mod podge with lots of the baby blue glitter. Apply this to the inner section of the jar that is still visible. Also apply some around the neck and top rim of your jar. The mod podge will dry clear leaving a crystallised glittery effect. Drying time is longer as the glue is thicker and no paper is applied. Mine took a few hours to dry fully.
11) once dry tie your blue ribbon around the neck of the jar into a pretty bow.
Dried Mod Podge Mixture
12) for the top section of the lid, place the lid face down on some heart Decopatch paper and with a pencil lightly draw around it. Once done carefully cut out the circle with a craft knife. Decopatch your cut out circle to the top of the jar again adding two top layers of mod podge to the top of the paper. Leave to dry for 20 minutes.
13) Fill with Sweets or anything else you like (tea lights, makeup, pamper goodies, cookies) and fit lid.
Now just use some pretty tissue paper to wrap your heart and jar, place in a pretty gift bag ready to give as a gift.
Fabric Flower Power Heart Magnet
You will need…
1 Large paper mâché heart magnet (Hobbycraft)
Some funky flower fabric (enough to cover heart) Mine is from eBay
Medium thick orange ribbon (Baker Ross)
3 Self adhesive buttons that coordinate with your fabric (I used red, yellow, baby blue) from Baker Ross
White acrylic paint
Mod podge
Tools…
2 brushes (for paint and mod podge)
Scissors
Craft Knife
Ruler
1) Paint heart in white paint as before.
2) use a ruler and craft knife to cut fabric into two pieces one 3/4 in size and the other 1/4 in size. Use ruler to support fabric as you cut. Remove any frying.
3) cover 3/4 of your heart in mod podge placing the 3/4 piece of fabric on top at an angle so that only a 1/4 of the heart is left to cover. If fabric comes over the edges trim or just stick down as I have done. Add mod podge to both the heart and the top layer of fabric just as we did the decopatch paper.
4) Mod podge other 1/4 of heart and add the other half piece of fabric joining the pattern. Again add a coat of mod podge to the top layer of fabric working in the same way as the first piece. Leave to dry for around 20-30 minutes.
5) Once dry add the ribbon to the sides of the heart as we did for our retro patterned heart above. Leave to dry for 10-15 minutes.
6) Now stick on your three buttons like so and you’re heart magnet is set to go.
So… There you have it. Some fantastic Valentines handcrafted inspiration.
Have you made anything for Valentines Day?
Mummy Of Many Talents 