By 
I’ve been meaning to make homemade playdough for my daughter for a while now, so I was excited to have the perfect excuse when I thought up these punny Valentines! A quick search on Pinterest will show you lots of fun ways to give playdough as a small Valentine gift, but was surprised to not find any using homemade playdough. My collection of empty baby food jars was starting to get a bit out of hand, but they came in super handy for this project!
what you need:
- Empty baby food jars (or any small jars)
- A batch of your favorite homemade play dough
- Paint
- Paintbrushes
- Stickers
- Gift tags
- Marker
- Ribbon, yarn, or twine
how-to:
Step 1
Make your homemade playdough! I used this recipe and was really happy with the results.
Make your homemade playdough! I used this recipe and was really happy with the results.
Step 2
Make sure your baby food jars are clean and dry. Fortunately, the labels seem to come off really easily for baby food so that saves some trouble. It might vary from brand to brand, but I found the lids on these ones can be tricky so if this is causing issues, you can of course use small mason jars or any other small jars instead. For littler kids, you might also want to consider using plastic jars.
Make sure your baby food jars are clean and dry. Fortunately, the labels seem to come off really easily for baby food so that saves some trouble. It might vary from brand to brand, but I found the lids on these ones can be tricky so if this is causing issues, you can of course use small mason jars or any other small jars instead. For littler kids, you might also want to consider using plastic jars.
Step 3
Divide the playdough into balls and drop one into each jar. Screw the lids onto the jars.
Divide the playdough into balls and drop one into each jar. Screw the lids onto the jars.
Step 4
Paint the lids with multisurface acrylic paint. I found this worked without any issues, but if you’re in a rush you can choose to use spray paint instead – just make sure to remove the lids from the jars before you do this. Whichever painting method you choose, let the paint dry completely and then use heart-shaped stickers to decorate the lids.
Step 5
On the paper tags, use a marker to write “doughn’t do breaking my heart!” or any Valentine’s type message that includes “dough” as part of the pun. On the back of the tag, you can also write “to:” and “from:”.
Paint the lids with multisurface acrylic paint. I found this worked without any issues, but if you’re in a rush you can choose to use spray paint instead – just make sure to remove the lids from the jars before you do this. Whichever painting method you choose, let the paint dry completely and then use heart-shaped stickers to decorate the lids.
Step 5
On the paper tags, use a marker to write “doughn’t do breaking my heart!” or any Valentine’s type message that includes “dough” as part of the pun. On the back of the tag, you can also write “to:” and “from:”.
Step 6
Use ribbon, twine, or yarn to tie the tag onto the jars.
Use ribbon, twine, or yarn to tie the tag onto the jars.
Happy crafting!