I hope no one is getting tired of all our Valentine’s crafts – I have a few more to post! This idea came from the Feb 2011 issue of Family Fun (great magazine, I dog-ear at least 10 pages each issue which is my criteria for keeping a magazine subscription).

I did run into some issues with the cornstarch glue. It seems I’m not the only one – at least Kim from Life of a Modern Mom had the good sense to jump ship and move on to the Elmer’s glue. I was trying to reach “translucency” with a bunch of white goop in my pot that seemed ready to solidify. I took the mixture out of the pan and found the perfect solution…
helllloooo, microwave! A few zaps of the microwave and 45 seconds later I had the holy grail of cornstarch glue – sticky, translucent and gelatinous.
Here’s the before:

And here’s the paste midway through the microwaving – see how it’s turning clear? (Or maybe you can’t because I have no clue how to photograph a tub of see-through-goo, sorry)

While I was busy messing with the paste Claire was cutting up the yarn. She’s still getting the hang of the whole scissor thing and snipping yarn was a low frustration way to practice. You’ll want the strings to be about 12 inches in length.

Next comes the messy part. Plunge the strings into the paste and let them swirl down onto a parchment covered surface (we used a cookie sheet). Having some kind of a mold is key here, cookie cutters would work best but I didn’t have a large enough heart available so I winged I with a pipe cleaner. I’m sure the pipe cleaner could be made part of the whole ornament but I opted to take it off, primarily to reuse it so we could make more than one heart!

Once the area is covered with the string squash all the yarn flat (I used a piece of parchment paper because the yarn was s-t-i-c-k-y!) and let it dry. If you’re impatient through the whole thing in the oven for an hour on warm. The lowest setting on my oven was 160 and that dried all the paste up in about an hour and fifteen minutes. The final product makes a super cute hanging ornament. Alternatively, you can wear it like Claire – and I must add I was immediately reminded of Flavor-Flav and his oversized watch necklaces upon seeing this morning! Heehee!

And do tell if you have a secret recipe for homemade paste and glue. I suppose it won’t be secret anymore but I will be forever grateful!

For more Valentine’s Day goodies check out our swanky pink tissue paper wreath, my post on Heart Apple Chips and don’t miss our homemade heart stamps: