Puzzle Piece Hearts

We made our moms puzzle piece heart pins for Valentine's Day.


I got the idea from Family Fun Magazine and then we tweaked it a little bit. We made the project two different ways: The first time we made it, I cut out card stock hearts and then cut out the middle so that it would look like the picture on the website.
But after we tried it, the card stock wasn't sturdy enough for the kids to take it home before it dried. So the next time we tried it, I cut out hearts with card stock and glued them to cardboard, but I didn't cut out the middle so they look like the pictures that are above. The next time we do it, I think I will use the cardboard and the card stock and cut out the middle because once they dried, they were very cute. Okay, enough rambling, here's the project:

Here's What You Need:
Red spray paint
20-25 puzzle pieces per heart
white glue
pin backing (we used the kind that are self adhesive)
cardboard
red card stock

Here's What We Did:

1. Take out all of the edge pieces of the puzzle pieces and spray paint red. (You could also spray paint it after the pieces are glued together.)
2. Cut out heart shapes from the red card stock and glue to the cardboard.
3. Use exacto knife to cut out the middle of the hearts leaving a thin heart outline.
4. Glue red puzzle pieces onto heart shape with white glue.
5. When dry, put pin backing on the back.

If you want to, you could attach it to a valentine with sentiments like I'm going to pieces over you or you'll always have a piece of my heart.

There are a lot of variations to this project. Instead of a pin, you could add a magnet, or you could add a sting to use it as a Christmas ornament. It could also be a cute picture frame.