How to Make Giant Conversation Hearts for Valentines

Wow! The last day of the 31 Days of Love and wow… we have a fabulous art project for you today! Cassie Stephens is a fabulous art teacher, blogger and youtuber and today she shares this fantastically arty Valentine Decoration with you – Giant Conversation Hearts sculptures. She makes using plaster, but suggests using paper mache if this isn’t an option for you. I hope you enjoy her tutorial as much as I do! We do love Conversation Heart Crafts. So fun.

If you are catching up on the 31 Days of Love series, you can see all the projects conviently grouped by theme here:

Valentine Decorations,
Valentine Craft Ideas for Preschoolers,
Valentine Day Treats,
Valentines STEAM Activities and
Valentine Cards for Kids
Valentines Day – Conversation Heart Crafts and finally, our
Complete list of 101 Heart Crafts!

Hello, Cutie Pies and Love Bugs, won’t you Be Mine on this Candy Heart Sculpture adventure? I’m so excited (and maybe a pinch sugar’ed up from one too many candy hearts) about this project seriously sweet Valentine’s project! It is just the perfect thing for those artists young and old, especially those 10 and up. I’ve already made an entire set and thinking I now need to create a giant-sized box to display them in!

To make your own DIY Conversation Hearts Sculpture, you’ll need the following:

Tag or poster board, one 2″ X 24″ and two 8″ squares
Scissors
Stapler
Tape
Rigid Wrap Plaster Cloth from Activa Products
Approximately 24″ of plaster wrap per heart. The wrap comes in a width of 6″ so I cut it in half for this project.
Acrylic paint

How to make Conversation Heart Sulptures

Being an art teacher, I did this project with my 10 year old students. On our first hour long art class, we created the armature and cut the plaster strips. The next class involved us covering our hearts with plaster. That was a whole lot of fun. To contain the plaster dust, be sure to cover your table (and floor!) and use the separate containers as I did in the video. On the final session, we painted our hearts and added our message. My students had a blast. As did I…I created four candy hearts!

If plaster is not available, papier mache is a great alternative. I have found that drying projects in front of a fan speeds up the dry time. Because, let’s face it, you’re going to be excited to get to the painting part of your candy heart!

Be sure to check out the history behind Candy or Conversation Hearts as well as how they are made. I learned that Necco, the candy company, has been creating these hearts for well over 100 years! They also change the wording on the hearts, adding new sayings each year. I found coming up with my “conversation” to be the most fun.

For more Valentine’s fun, you might want to check out some of these posts!