It is almost time for elementary school Valentine’s Day parties. Our kids don’t always make their own cards, but on the years that they do this is one of their favorite projects.

The teachers and other students all love these cards. We make our own seed paper with marigold seeds in it. When they take the card home they can plant the heart in some soil, water it, and watch it grow!
To make these Valentine’s Day cards you will need: construction paper, water, a blender, some seeds, heart shaped cookie cutters, and some cardstock to print your cards on.
The first step is to rip up the paper and place it in bowls. You will want these pieces to be pretty small.

Next you need to pour some warm water into the bowls making sure that the paper is completely submerged. Let the paper sit in the water for a couple of hours.

Using one color at a time puree the paper with just enough of the water to form a paste. You don’t want the mixture to be too watery, but there should be enough water in it to be able to spread it out.

Next you will need to pour some seeds into each of the bowls and mix them up. My kids love helping mix the seeds and playing with the paper pulp. It’s squishy and reminds them of slime, so the project can take a while after this point.

Take small amounts of the paper mixture and press it into the cookie cutter placed on a towel. You will want to make sure that you have an old towel that is dedicated just to craft projects like this. It is messy and will stain.
Press the mixture down firmly and make sure to get as thin and even of a layer as possible. If it gets to thin it might me hard to peel off of the towel without breaking later. If it is too thick, it will take much longer to dry.

Once the cookie cutter is removed you will have a small heart shaped piece of paper. Make several of these, and leave them out on the towel to dry. I like to place a fan on the table to help them dry faster. Even with that it usually takes about 24 hours or more to dry. You will want to be sure to carefully peel them up and flip them over about halfway through the drying time to make sure that both sides are exposed to the moving air.

While they are drying you can print up some Valentine’s cards. Once they are completely dry you can attach them to the card with a tiny dot of hot glue.

Once the glue has dried the cards are finished and ready to hand out to all of their friends. This project takes a while to do, but is very fun for kids. They are always so proud to show off their hard work.