Watercolor Hearts Bunting

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With all of the snow and cold weather of the recent days, I’ve turned to introducing Little Bug to watercolor painting. Although we’ve tried acrylic painting in the past, I’ve found it a little messy and hard to manage with Baby M around. Since I didn’t want to stifle Little Bug’s creative exploration, I decided to try watercolors.

The best part about watercolor painting and toddlers is that they are a lot less messy. I found the paints were easier to contain and, once I helped get Little Bug started, she was able to create pretty independently.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I chose doily paper hearts as our paper type. We needed a new Valentine’s Day decoration for our mantel, so I decided to string together our paper hearts and make a watercolor heart bunting.

You Will Need:

White Doily Paper Hearts (affiliate)
Washable Watercolor Paints (I recommend Crayola washable watercolors (affiliate) for they’re brilliant colors and they wash out of clothes)
Paintbrush
Baker’s Twine (if you’re planning to make a bunting)

1. Paint each doily heart with water color paint.

You will need 10 to 12 painted hearts depending on the length of your mantel. Let the hearts dry.

2. Cut three to four inch lengths of baker’s twine. Tie the twine between each set of hearts to link them together.

3. Hang your heart bunting on a mantel, Valentine’s Day dessert table or along a window.

This was such a festive project to introduce water color painting. I also painted hearts with Little Bug, but I didn’t like how mine turned out. There is something about the unrestrained painting behavior of a toddler that makes this project turn out even prettier!

Don’t want to make a bunting?  Watercolor hearts also make beautiful Valentine’s Day cards.  You could also lay them out on top of a table runner to decorate a festive Valentine’s Day table.  Have another way that you plan to use them?  Be sure to share in the comments below.

And if you want to save this Valentine’s Day craft for later, be sure to pin below.

Happy Celebrating,
Natalie