This year to add to my (hopefully) 30 days of Valentines Day crafts I have been trying to come up with easy ideas that you can do at home are very cost effective. I, of all people, know that one craft can eat up $100 and leave you asking yourself why you didn’t just buy it on Etsy for half that.
Do not fret!
I have a fun idea that can be altered right in your home with what you already own AND you can reuse recycled bottles.
Here we go!
“I” Spy Conversation Hearts Game
You will need
- beads or sprinkles or sand or sugar or rice (told you it was versatile)
- Conversation Hearts (or other tiny items, paperclips, rocks, seashells)
- super glue
- a jar with a lid – I used an old Starbucks drink container and a mason jar
Move whatever annoying animal you have that cannot stay away from your crafts.
Meet Scarlett.
Goodbye Scarlett.
I have all these old Starbucks glass containers from purchasing coffee. If you have those too, they work perfectly. Just peel off the sticker on the front and back and use a little squirt of WD40 on the left over residue. With a rag and a bit of soap it comes right off and leaves you with a clean jar. That was me testing it out with trial and error on products under my sink. Works perfectly. Dry your jar.
Want to make this a true game? Separate your hearts and take a picture!
You can use this picture for older kids so they can check off as they find certain hearts. (print your picture!).
You can also look for hearts by color or if you have a very young child, like I do, the thrill of seeing hearts at all is enough.
I created my “I” (eye) Spy Valentines Day game two ways. First I used glitter then beads. The beads (which were 80% off as Christmas filler at the craft store) worked the best. Glitter tends to stick to everything and made the hearts harder to read. Because I like to still show you the mistakes, let’s get that one out of the way.
Glitter
Layer Glitter – Hearts – Glitter – Hearts till your jar is nearly full.
I prefer to leave room in the jar so the glitter can float around and the hearts are more easily attainable.
The glitter did mix up, which looked cute (imo) but it also stuck to the hearts and made them harder to read.
Beads
Same deal – Beads, Hearts, Beads, Hearts all the way up and leaving room at the top. You can choose to put as little or as many hearts as you want!
Seal the lid with some super glue. Having this dump all over your house would not be fun.
That’s it! A really fun game that will last a long time for your kids this Valentines Day and also perfect for the car (keeps em quiet).
Did you make my craft? Let me know! I will be happy to add your pictures here.
~Trisha
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I love the second one!
What a cute idea, my kids would get a kick out of this!
THis is such a neat Valentine’s craft idea. I love the way you put it together.
Oooh, the one with the beads is especially cute! Very crafty!
That is a really neat idea. I love it!
LOL i was getting kind of twitchy until you said to use super glue. this is ADORABLE
Now this is a FANTASTIC craft idea – I am SO doing this!
This is a really cute V-Day craft that I know my girls would love! Shiney and glittery are two of their favorite things! lol P.S. Scarlett is adorable!
This is absolutely gorgeous! We would have so much fun doing this… messy, but there is rarely a messy that isn’t fun 😉
Those kinds of look and find crafts are super cute. I like your checklist idea too!
You were right! These look fairly easy and cost effective. Scarlet and my toddler could be friends. They do the same thing when it comes to getting into stuff. 🙂
I love that you used glass frap bottles! The hearts and glitter inside are such wonderful ideas!
You are so creative! My little girl would love this, and it would be pretty to do a few different sizes for a table centerpiece.
My little guy would love these but I would not love the glitter…LOL We will stick with the beads.
This is so creative and such a fun project! I simply had to pin this. Thanks for the super glue tip. I certainly wouldn’t want this spilled all over the house.
What a cute idea. Step one is definitely the most important in my house lol.
Super cute!
Where did you get the bottles?
Those little conversation hearts are addicting.
I can never eat just one.
What a cue idea. My mind is spinning thinking of ways to do this with my preschooler.
How cool is this? My kids would love to make this and play with it! Thanks for the idea!
so cool- what an awesome craft!!!!
I love fun and inexpensive crafts! And your kitty is adorable. 😉
This is such a great idea! I think I am gonna stock up on supplies and do these for my sons class.
What a cute idea! This would be great to make with the kids. Thanks for sharing 🙂
St. Valentine’s Day is a wonderful holiday! There is a plenty of ideas for gifts and decorations of the house. I think this bottle will serve as a nice decoration not only for this holiday but just in general.
Oh, I had to laugh at your “annoying animal”. I have one of those too, an 18 year old geriatric tabby named Cosmo who suddenly decides he needs to be the world’s oldest kitten whenever the craft or baking supplies come out. (Scarlett’s adorable, by the way).
This is a cute idea. I think I might do this with my boys! I like that it’s inexpensive and cute.
SUPER cute! And you could absolutely change it to use letter beads or something like that so it’d be good all year.
Thanks for sharing!
What a cute idea and my daughter is going to love this!
How cute! My boys love Snow Globes and this reminds me of them. Going to try it!
This is too cute. I think I will head to the craft store this weekend and try this out with the girl… since her birthday is this week.
Cute! My girls will love this!
These are so cute! You are one creative lady, Trisha!
This is such an adorable idea. My daughter would love this. P.S. your cat is adorable.
What a cute idea! Danika would love to play this
That is so fun and simple. We made these before with colored rice for just everyday, and the boys had a lot of fun with them.
This is such a simple and fun craft! I believe I have everything, except the hearts, to do this!
You could find other things to add…or other candies (candy corns), or even cut up some baby construction paper hearts.
You are so stinkin’ clever and creative, Mrs. Haas! I love all these crafts you are sharing 🙂
These are so cute!! I love the look of the glitter but it would probably be impossible to really read the hearts once it stuck to them!