DIY Heart Valentine’s Day Crown

Are you getting pumped for Valentine’s Day! I am but this year we are trying to slow the holidays down a bit. What I mean is: tame my shopping inner-beast that wants to buy every single thing for my daughter for each holiday. It’s inevitable that we will craft like you haven’t seen a craftanista craft for each holiday, but the commercialism has to be brought to a halt.

So, a small Valentine’s present has been purchased and a few little Valentine’s candies and favor type presents will be given to my child but no more. No Valentines dresses this year, no thematic clothes and no plushes. I know, I’m so mean. But honestly it’s time to make the focus on sending the valentines by snail mail and kissing mama and dada a lot, that’s it!

But here is one craft I do every year for my child. I make her a Valentine’s day crown. Every year! Some with pom poms, some with pipe cleaner hearts, some floral crowns, some origami heart crowns but it’s gotta be done, just like a mermaid needs a crown!

Here is the simplest crown to make and so easy to embellish with real flowers or ribbons or tied on trinkets. Just make sure you tuck all the wires away from where they would touch on your child’s skin or forehead. Pinch them down tight.

Materials:

one to two bags of pipe cleaners of the same color

fresh flowers, trinkets, little birds, butterflies, or ribbons to embellish as you see fit!

Follow this slideshow to see how all the pieces come together!

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First thing you want to do is make the crown fit your child’s head. Take two pieces of pipe cleaner and twist one side together. Fit it around your child’s head to see if it fits snug but not too tight and not so it is falling off. Twist the other end to make the fit.
Now attach two pieces of pipe cleaner and twist it around and around the circle you already made to double it up and make it stronger. Go all the way around and make sure it is tightly wound around it so there are no gaps between the pipes.
Cut up a few pipe cleaners so you have a several 2-3″ pieces. You will need these to attach the hearts to the crown.
Make the hearts. You will need 6-7 of them to make it around. Bend the pipe in half but round out the end so it is more of an oval shape or tear drop shape. Twist the ends together to close the pipe. At the bottom middle section of the oval bend it to make a dramatic V shape right in the middle. Press it to make it firm. Pull the twisted end over and down to make a heart shape. Round out the arches and shape the heart just so. You can choose to double this by wrapping tightly another pipe around it or not. It’s up to you. I didn’t do this.
Take the V point at the bottom of the heart and line it up on the crown. Tie it on with the small 2-3″ piece of pipe. Twist it all the way to secure it to the crown and then clean your edges by tucking away all wires. Take another heart and line it up next to it so it doesn’t overlap. Secure the bottom V to the crown and then secure the sides of the hearts with the two inch segments. Continue all the way around until the whole crown is full of hearts evenly spaced and the crown seems safe (wires tucked) and finished.
The fun part is adding sprigs of flowers and greenery to the parts where the hearts connect on the sides or embellishing the bottom of the crown. Have fun with it!!!