A Colorful 3D Paper Heart Craft for Valentine’s Day

Turning a piece of paper into something 3 dimensional never fails to amaze my kids and today’s Paper Heart Craft is one of the easiest ways to make paper 3D. All you do is decorate, cut, and staple!

This post originally appeared as part of  the amazing Red Ted Art’s  31 Days of Love Series. See the series here.

Several years ago I took this project into my daughter’s 1st grade class. The kids really enjoyed the project and were delighted to take these home to their parents as a special handmade Valentine.

Age Appropriateness: 6+

Tips:

• Younger children may need some help with the folding and cutting. A parent volunteer would be a great help.
• With kids ages 6-7 I suggest you skip the double folding because it is difficult to cut through 4 layers of card stock with school scissors. You can decrease the number of hearts younger children decorate and cut and make simpler 3D hearts.
• If you are working with older kids be sure to have them make a collection of these and turn them into a garland or door hanger.

3D PAPER HEART CRAFT

PRINT THE TEMPLATE HERE

Materials

• Template Download here
• Cardstock (you can use regular paper but cardstock is preferred for durability)
• Scissors
• Paint, crayons, markers, etc.
• Stapler
• String optional

Instructions

• Step One Print the template on card stock.
• Step Two Decorate the front of the heart template as desired. Watercolor is a quick easy easy way to color them though oil pastels were also a favorite with the kids!
• Step Three Turn paper over, and trace the hearts onto the back of the template with a pencil. TIP: Hold the template up to a window so you can see and trace the hearts from the front of the template.
• Step Four Fold the template in half.  Fold in half again.
• Step Five Cut out the hearts while the paper is folded. Once cut unfold each heart.
• Step Six Gather the hearts in a stack and staple them along the center fold.
• Step Seven Fan out each of the sides to create a 3 dimensional shaped heart.

If desired tape or glue a looped string along the center to hang them.

Turn your 3D Heart Craft into something special!

• Use these as Valentine’s cards with messages written in each leaf.
• Hang them on a houseplant like you would holiday ornaments.
• Attach the heart to a horizontal string to make a garland. Alternatively hang them vertically as a door hanger.
• Glue the paper heart craft on bamboo skewers to make a cake topper.
• Add the 3D hearts to a mobile.

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