Recycled Newspaper Puffy Heart

I first found this Recycled Paper Heart Valentine project on Art Projects for Kids. I was doing a search for recycled Valentine's Day projects.

I just loved this project. You can check out the Art Projects for Kids site, or see my own take on the project here.

1. I started out with 16 sheets of newspaper (the original project called for 8, but I always go bigger for everything! I made 4 hearts with this amount.) 2. Cut the newspapers into strips about 1" wide.

3. Cut the strips into 1/2" pieces.

4. Place the pieces into a bowl.

5. Cover the pieces with hot water and let it soak for 24 hours. (I know, it's tough, but you really have to wait...)

6. The paper starts to look like a pulp or a big blob of paper. Work though the blob with your fingers and tear up any large lumps. The Art Project for Kids blog states it should look like gray oatmeal, and that is a good example.

7. Once you have gotten rid of the lumps, squeeze out the extra water.

8. Add white glue to the mixture at a rate of about 1 unit of glue to 4 units of pulp. (I just eyed it and mixed it in and went from there.) Work the glue through.

9. Form a ball.

10. Form into hearts on wax paper.

11. Let dry for several hours.

12. When you can pick up the heart, wrap it with string pulling firmly to make an indention and tuck the ends into the back.

NOTE: I decided to try lace because that would be pretty. It didn't work. After the hearts dried, the lace was too loose. Make sure when you wrap the string (if you do that) you pull it tightly.

13. Let the heart dry completely. This took a couple of days with my hearts.

14. After it is dry, paint the entire heart with a thick layer of white acrylic paint.

15. Let the white paint dry and paint with a thick layer of colored acrylic paint. I used both pink and red. You can experiment with different painting techniques, colors, glitter, etc.

16. The Art Projects for Kids project suggest a spray of glossy sealer. (I didn't do this.)

17. To add a string or ribbon, you can pretty easily use an awl to poke a hole through the heart.

18. To get the ribbon through, I just took an extra piece of wire and pulled the ribbon through the hole.

19. Enjoy your Valentine's Day decorations!

These will make really cute decorations! I like things to be relatively plain and clean, but you can get really creative with these hearts.

I think you could really do this with any shape. I am thinking eggs for Easter, trees for Christmas, etc.

Great way to reuse newspaper in a fun way!