Easy Valentine Craft – Watercolor Marker Heart Doilies
Valentines Day, in our family, tends to be something more for the kids than for my husband and I. He and I don’t usually do much of anything, but the kids get a kick out of waking up to find little valentines out on the table. My mom used to do this for me when I was a kid and I remember feeling really loved, so it’s something I like to do for them too.
I do keep it simple – just a card, or one year I made pompoms with googly eyes that were “love bugs”.
The kids love making valentines though, even if it’s a holiday I don’t do much with – so I love it when I find a simple way to make them and we were very happy with this spur of the moment Valentines project.
We found a stack of heart doilies in an old file and they just seemed to be begging for some color…
Essentials for this easy Valentine Craft:
Supplies below are linked to Amazon – I’d guess you may be able to find heart doilies at Dollar Tree or similar as well.
- washable markers
- heart doilies
- water
- watercolor paper or a paper towel.
(Yes, these hearts look all faded because I was messing around with Instagram filters…)
We started out without any watercolor paper underneath, but as the amount of liquid increased we decided to put our doilies on top of a piece of the absorbent paper both to catch extra drips and to see what kind of pattern would emerge. The watercolor paper underneath absorbed the paint and made a pretty design.
Making Watercolor Marker Heart Doilies:
This craft requires gentle drawing on the valentine or else you’ll rip the doilies – they get more fragile, naturally as they get wet.
- Dip the washable marker into the water and gently draw on the heart.
- If you would like the colors to all blend prettily you can choose to put out only colors that mix nicely – up to you.
- Keep dipping and drawing until you’re satisfied with your valentine.
- Allow the colored doilies to dry before removing them from the watercolor paper. (This will keep them from ripping.)
Tip: If your valentine-makers are particularly impatient you can always dry the valentines with a blow dryer to speed along the process.
This is really an easy and quick valentine craft – that’s all there is too it.
Once your valentines are dry you can lift them from the paper and notice the pretty pattern they leave beneath. You may want to use the watercolor paper underneath for card making.
What can you do with these hearts?
- Hang your finished valentines on a Valentine bulletin board.
- Use them in your Art Journal for the word Love.
- String them on a Valentines Banner
- Use them as a base for colorful valentine cards.
After making these colorful hearts, I found another similar tutorial for painted doilies from the lovely Artful Parent – Check hers out to see how she strung them up as a bunting.
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This has so much potential. If your worried about degrading your markers…..What if you colored the doilies, then spritzed them with water afterward, putting them on top of the water color paper. Since the markers are water soluble the color should bleed through the doily.
That’s a great idea Lisa, thank you! I’ve got a few more heart doilies and I think we’ll have to give it a try.
I just LOVE the simplicity of this! And they would be such a fun open-ended activity for so many ages! Thank you so much for sharing our homemade valentines. They’re a perfect fit! 🙂
Does dipping the marker in water damage it or make it less effective without the water? I’m wondering if I should only try this with old markers?
Maybe stick with the old markers…I don’t know that I noticed a difference, but our 3 year old has been brutal on our markers lately, so we have very few “good” ones that I would be worried about any how.
I did this project with my 2 1/2 year old buying new markers just to do this with. She ended up ruining majority of the colors since she let them soak in the water instead of just dipping them. But if they were just dipped I don’t think there’d be a problem.