DIY Woodland Valentine Box

LOVE IS IN THE AIRtist!  Happy Valentine’s Day!  We hope you have a love-ly day planned with your little lovelies!  We are SO excited to give you a peek into our latest workshop HANDMADE WITH LOVE: making + creating for Valentine’s Day!  All winterLONG we’ve been dreaming of creating our original + one-of-a-kind “Woodland  Valentine’s Box” and now it is here!  Oh la la, all the endless possibilities!  Enjoy our little + festive + Valentine DIY!

Materials + Supplies + Our Process:

Each artist collected their own woodland + natural treasures in a sweet basket based on a list we had sent home which included:

• stones/river rock • snail shells • acorns • small twigs/driftwood • smaller wood forms • pinecones • dried pods • dried leaves • feathers • moss • more!  We encouraged each artist be an observant treasure hunter out on exploration!

• a box + lid with a cut opening on top + paper mache + dictionary pages

• a sheet of moss for the box top + additional moss in varied shades of green

• paint for box top edges

• hot glue + glue gun

• scissors + glue stick + white glue

• repurposed cardboard tubes + paint + brushes + corks

• air dry clay for mushrooms + paint

• empty thread spools + washi tapes for feet

• woodland trees to paint

• tapes + stickers + twine + shiny stars for garland

• decorative paper straws + wire + eye screws + star wire

• miniature vellum envelopes + card for personalized letter

We used repurposed dictionary pages to symbolize “vintage love letters” and to provide one of our favorite  elements, text.  Both the inside + outside of each box needed to be paper mached.  The children loved the paper mache process, working with their hands + getting messy + creating as a community of little owls!

We used repurposed cardboard tubes to create fallen forrest logs and to create little mushroom bases.  Tubes were easy to cut, shape, paint and lightweight to glue!

The children loved our collection of sparkly + shiny stars, metallic stars on wire, plus festive Valentine paper straws to create their base for their decorative garland.  We found some lovely bottle brush trees to painted pink and used air dry clay to create sweet + little + hand-sculpted mushrooms!

Several low-temp glue guns were brought out so the children could arrange their  collected + woodland box top treasures to glue down.

A peek through the woods as this little one heads to detail, just after getting her woodland treasures arranged and glued down.

A few weeks before our workshop began, we had over 100 thread spools donated to our studio.  These quickly became the feet on our boxes, with the fabulous addition of washi tapes!  Each artist enjoyed creating their own distinct + personalized patterns on all four feet!  We were SO excited about this detail, that was just meant to be!  We had just the right amount of spool sets for our artists and of course a never ending collection of washi tape.  Winding tape on spools provided just the perfect amount of creative coordination for our 6 – 9 year olds as they teamed up to assist one another!  The feet were then glued on all fur corners.

A four feet closeup, demonstrating just how this addition gave our Woodland Valentine’s Boxes a raised + pedestal like feel!  Definitely a favorite + personalized addition to set this project off!

Minutes before “painting white polkadots began” on the mushroom tops!

Extra long + wooden handled cotton swabs worked as a fabulous + fun tool for the polkadot detail!

Each artist crafted a sweet + handmade garland using white stickers + polkadot stickers + washi tapes + red and white twine + marker, along with a personalized tag with their name for our mini-art exhibit!  The variety and individualized designs were so fun!

Detailing + dotting the mushrooms…

A closeup of a woodland forest!  Here you can see the opening for letters of love!

We had each of our HANDMAKERY families bring an extra special + handmade + one-of-a-kind card + envelope to our mini-art exhibit + recognition ceremony to gift their artist!  It was so special to see each family deliver their handmade Valentine to their little one and watch all the reactions of joy + love + surprise + excitement!  Many of the children were surprised their parents were also artists and knew how to make handmade cards from scratch.  Most of the families greatly enjoyed the opportunity to create something handmade for their child and this gave them the perfect opportunity!

Another beautiful + handmade card from the heart!  This little one was overjoyed by this special Valentine created by her Mom + Dad!

We had discovered teeny tiny vellum envelopes and had the idea of each artist writing a “VALENtiny” to hide in their woodland forrest, to be discovered by their family!  This VALENtiny (above) was for a special + much loved Daddy!  It was a fabulous night celebrating with all our HANDMAKERY families at our traditional mini-art exhibit + recognition ceremony with the lovely addition of festive cupcakes and punch!  A night filled with love + laughter, memories + connection, definitely a day to remember!  Follow us on Instagram to see more adventures in our art studio!

Posted by HANDMAKERY

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