Today let’s talk about a DIY Valentine’s Day grapevine wreath tutorial with white dough hearts!
Hello there friends! Valentine’s day is quickly approaching, so it’s time to do some crafting with hearts? Am I right?
I’d been eyeing those salt dough-looking ornaments at Christmas that were super bright and white! So I went looking for a recipe to make them into hearts.
A great activity to include the kids in, I might add!
And I wanted to do something a bit different, so I found a way to use them on a DIY Valentine’s Day wreath.
Have I ever told you I have a mini-obsession with DIY wreaths? If you’re by chance looking for a similar-looking wreath, but don’t want to mess with the dough hearts, definitely check out this post – neutral grapevine wreath with hearts and a touch of pink!
This tutorial is a two-step process but both steps are super easy! And in the end, you get a beautiful neutral Valentine’s Day wreath that you created!
Plus, I will give you an idea of how to use the rest of the white dough hearts. Read on for the details on how to make this DIY Valentine’s day wreath using white dough hearts!
First, Make Your White Dough Hearts
Grab your supplies! All you need to make them is flour, salt, water, and white paint. Along with cookie cutters and parchment paper.
I adapted this recipe slightly from one found on the website, domesticallyblissful.com. I used chalk paint instead of acrylic, and I changed the water and paint ratio since I was running out of paint. 😉
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- 1/2 cup white paint (I used this chalk paint but you could also use acrylic)
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup salt
First, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix the paint and water.
Then pour about 1/2 of the water/paint mix into the flour and mix. You will not need all the water/paint mix but save it because we’ll be using it later!
Mix it up until it forms a dough adding more of the water/paint mix as needed. Knead it for about a minute and then it will be ready to roll out.
Roll your dough out, we rolled ours out on parchment paper to about 1/4 inch thickness.
Then use your heart-shaped cookie cutters (I do not have this same set, but the sizes are pretty equitable to mine) to cut out your hearts.
We used a few different-sized cookie cutters. Lastly, we used some items from around the house to press into the hearts to make designs.
We used seashells, faux holly leaves with berries, and also a piece of burlap to make designs.
Also, because we used some for the wreath and some for garland, we poked holes in a few before allowing them to dry.
Allow to air dry for at least 48 hours turning over as needed so that both sides are able to dry out. Placing them on a cooling rack is a good idea too.
Alternately you can dry them at a low temp in the oven, approximately 200 degrees, for about 2-3 hours.
After the dough hearts were dry, I gave them one quick coat of Minwax water based polycrylic finish on both the front and the back.
Next, Paint Your Grapevine Wreath
This is the step where you needed to keep your extra paint from the white dough hearts.
I picked up a grapevine wreath from Hobby Lobby for $4.99. I love these wreaths because they make it so easy to switch out decor from season to season.
If you have wire faux florals, intertwining them into the wreath is a breeze. And they stick in there really well!
I took the paint from the previous step and a craft paintbrush and began painting the wreath.
I didn’t want all the brown to be covered, I was going for a “dogwood tree” kind of effect. So I used a paper towel and blotted some of the paint off the brush before applying it to the wreath.
Below is a picture of the process. I really liked how the white paint gave the grapevine wreath a bit of a whitewashed look.
Another mini obsession I have is whitewashing all the things!
Weave Your Pussy Willow Branches into Grapevine Wreath
After all the paint on your wreath has dried, it’s time to weave in your pussy willow branches.
I picked up two branches, they were $6.50 each because floral was half off that week at Hobby Lobby.
I had to cut off the branches with a wire cutter (these are similar to mine) as shown.
Then I took the branches and weaved them into the wreath so that they were secure.
You could use floral wire to secure them too, but I’ve never had a problem just sticking the stem in there and using the grapevine tendrils to secure them.
Here is how it looked before adding the white dough hearts.
Add White Dough Hearts to DIY Valentine’s Day Wreath
After weaving the pussy willow branches in there, it’s time to get the dough hearts ready.
I was originally going to use the thick central stem of the branches to hot glue to the hearts. But that sure wasn’t happening!
I tried to cut through that double wire with absolutely no success! Those Hobby Lobby stems are sturdy!
So I ended up using one of the branches from my other pussy willow stem. If you wanted to get by with only one pussy willow stem, be sure to save one of the branches to glue your hearts to!
I cut the one pussy willow branch into five 2-3 inch sections and then pulled off the fuzzy white part.
I then got an idea of where I wanted to position my hearts on the wreath and glued the stem on accordingly.
My trusty mini glue gun did the job great! You can see how I did this in the pictures below.
After waiting for the glue to dry, I shoved the branch down into the grapevine wreath. I then made sure they were weaved in enough to be stable on the wreath. As stated before, you can also use floral wire to secure them too!
And that’s it! The nice thing about this wreath is that you can remove the hearts easily to be used after Valentine’s Day!
This makes the wreath much more versatile! This is how I transitioned this same wreath into spring!
A Few More Ideas for White Dough Hearts
Just wanted to leave you with a few more ideas on how to use the white dough hearts.
I was able to make a garland out of them using my jute twine.
I simply pushed the doubled jute twine through the back of the hole in the heart. We made some hearts with and without holes so that we could use them several different ways.
Then, after I pushed the jute twine through to the front, I knotted it 2-3 times so that it wouldn’t slip back through.
And I kind of liked the little knot at the front of the hearts. Trim the knotted twine as needed.
Just a quick tip…if I would have made the holes a little lower it would have made hanging the garland easier because my hearts tended to tip forward, but just a bit.
Final Thought on DIY Valentine’s Day Grapevine Wreath
Just one last thing! 😉 I’m going to do a comparison post of a different white dough recipe using corn starch.
This one worked out well and I loved how bright white the dough turned out, but I’d like to see if the shades of white and texture differ with different recipes.
Sign up for my email list below and I’ll be sure to message you when it comes out!
**Addendum** I always like to be honest about the trip-ups I sometimes have when I do my DIY projects. That one big heart on the wreath came unglued from the branch, fell, and broke in two.
Luckily I had an extra one of the smaller hearts to replace it with, so the hearts on my wreath are now all the same size.
Just so you all know, it may be a good idea to keep a few extras just in case. 😉 The DIY process isn’t always perfect, but part of the appeal is figuring it all out. Don’t you think?
**Update** As a test in cold temperatures, I then hung the wreath with all the same size hearts on my front door (covered porch) for over a week.
That door gets a lot of “in and out” use, so the wreath was jiggled about a good bit! The little hearts (about 4 cm high) did wonderfully out there!
They stayed put on their stems and in the wreath! So, it may be a good idea to keep all the hearts that you put on the wreath a similar, smaller size when you make your own!
Thanks so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to make a DIY Valentine’s Day wreath! Leave me a comment if you have any questions or a note if you tried this project yourself!