I have always found Valentine’s Day to be kind of a weird holiday (full disclosure, its also my birthday.) I mean why do school children give each other valentine’s about romance? I have shifted my thinking about it somewhat by diving into winter birds and the start of nest making season, but this year I wanted to make something for my own little guys too and was inspired by some research I was doing for the floriography valentines I made earlier. As it turns out moss is symbolic of maternal love– and it makes for an adorable nature crafting material so what better jumping off point?
The plants I picked out to use are:
- Moss: maternal love
- Pansy: merriment
- Pussywillow: motherhood
- Cinquefoil: beloved child
- Fern: fascination & magic
- Juniper: protection
- White Heather: wishes come true
- (See my earlier floriography post for more plant meanings)
Maternal Love Plant Collage
This is the simplest solution, just assemble the plants that speak to you and affix them to some paper with glue or modge podge. You can be as creative or as rigid as you like with this and the end result will still be beautiful. You can press your own leaves and flowers by stacking them between sheets of newsprint and under some heavy books.
Materials:
- dried and/or pressed flowers, leaves and berries from the list above
- dried sheet moss cut into hearts
- heavy paper, I like black
- white glue
Method:
Move your plants around on your paper until you are happy with the arrangement.
Carefully glue everything into place and allow to dry.
Add a message or leave plain.
Walnut Box Valentine
I have been saving walnut shells for years intent on making something with them and I finally did! I read that victorians hinged them and put surprises in them on their christmas trees as a kind of advent calendar and always meant to do so, but still haven’t had the bandwidth quite yet. I immediately though of them for this project, because they are fun and vaguely heart shaped… and I only needed to make one for each child if I’m being honest. They came out beautifully and are the perfect size to squirrel away in a special collection.
Materials:
- dried and/or pressed flowers, leaves and berries from the list above
- dried sheet moss
- empty walnut shells
- small hinges
- glue
- paint pen
Method:
Attach the hinge to the back of the walnut shells using glue. (The shell is too brittle to use the nails or screws that will come with the hinge)
Fill one of shells with moss (this will be the bottom) Arrange your other plants on top and glue into place. I made a little heart out of juniper berries!
Close the little shell box and draw a heart of the top with a paint pen.
Gift to your favorite kids!
Valentine Kokedama
The moss symbolism got me thinking about kokedama, a Japanese tradition of making beautiful moss and soil balls that you can grow plants in. It’s too early in our part of the world to do much planting, but I decided to make little heart shaped kokedama with dried plants instead. We hung them on sticks in a vase and they make the loveliest centerpiece! Bonus is these don’t need to be kept watered unlike teh real thing. I didn’t have have any dried pansies on hand so I drew some instead!
Materials:
- dried sheet moss cut into pairs of hearts
- twine
- hot glue
- dried plants (or drawings!)
- hooks to hang them (we used ornament hooks)
Method:
Cut two heart shaped pieces of moss for each kokedama you want to make. I made them around 2 inches high, but you can make whatever size you desire.
Hot glue the two pieces of moss together with the green sides facing out. You can stuff a little more moss in the center to make them puffier if you want.
Wrap your twine around the moss hearts to further refine the shape. It’s not actually holding the moss together, the glue is, so it’s really just decorative.
Stick the plants into the top with a dab of glue.
Hang with the ornament hanger (just thread it through the twine)
Enjoy!