Why Don't You Make Valentines Day Votives?

Yes, I know that Valentine's Day is a Hallmark Holiday - contrived to convince people to spend money on chocolates and cards and roses and jewelry. Exactly the sort of holiday you would think I would avoid with my need to limit consumerism and commercialism in our home. But I can't help it. I LOVE Valentine's Day.

I love that it's a holiday about love, passion, affection, sweethearts. I love the cupids, the flowers, the chocolate, the cards, and yes, I even the love sparkly jewelry. Say what you will, I jump into this Hallmark Holiday feet first.

Still, it wasn't until I had my own child that I rediscovered the joy in creating our own Valentine's decorations. The beauty in handmade. Somewhere between my own childhood and womanhood I forgot that half of the beauty of this holiday belongs to the cut out hearts, the puddles of craft glue, and copious amounts of glitter.

Yesterday we made our own Valentine's Day votive holders out of material we already had. I'm not reinventing the wheel here. This project has been done by many, many bloggers, in many schools, and by generations of children. Still, it was fun, cheap, and turned out so sweet.

You'll need:
A recycled glass jar (We used a washed out pickle jar)
Colored tissue paper
Scissors
Liquid starch
Craft brushes
Newspaper
A container to hold your liquid starch

We began by laying newspapers down across our work area. Liquid starch is just that. Liquid. It's runny and messy - which is half the fun.

We took white craft tissue paper and tore it into small squares. 3 inches square or so works well. Under supervision, to make sure that our recycled pickle jar didn't roll right off the table, I had my son lay a piece of tissue paper across the jar. He then painted a small amount of liquid starch right over the top of the tissue paper. We tried just dipping the tissue paper, but it was too soggy, and just matted together.


Continue laying the white tissue paper over your glass jar until the entire jar is covered:


While the jar was still wet, we took shades of red and pink tissue paper and cut out itty bitty hearts. You can add the hearts directly to the top of the first wet white layer. It will help them adhere. If you need too, feel free to paint on just a wee bit more liquid starch:



Add as many tissue hearts as you want and make sure to layer some of them.

Allow your votive to dry overnight. When it's completely dry place a small tea light inside.



The result is charming, don't you think?

Happily crafting away.

Simple Mama