The other day a representative from the WWF-UK (World Wildlife Fund – UK) contacted me.
“Would you be interested in participating in a ‘green’ Valentine activity?” they asked me.
My answer? For sure!
I’m all about clean energy and being ‘green.’ We built and live in a solar envelope home. (We had solar panels on our previous home.) We planted over 200 trees and shrubs on our little 2 acre piece of property.
The WWF-UK encourages people to make a green Valentine this year for Valentine’s Day. ‘Turn your heart green’ is one of their tag lines. Clever, eh?
So, here’s my green Valentine craft. Exceedingly easy. Great fun. And, it will appeal to grandchildren of all ages.
The craft is a green heart Mod Podged onto a bar of green soap. (I had the Mod Podge left over from my Valentine plate craft so I thought I’d use it for this craft.)
Here’s what you will need to make craft.
- Green bar of soap (from the dollar store)
- Dishwasher safe Mod Podge (from Wal-mart)
- Small paintbrush
- Green scrapbook paper
I had two unpleasant surprises when I removed the wrapper off the soap. First, I saw that the name of the soap was ‘carved’ into the soap. That meant I would have to cover the name with my heart design if I didn’t want it to show.
What about using the back instead? I thought.
That’s when I saw the second unpleasant surprise.
What?!? Why on earth did the manufacturers make those two awful humps on the back of the bar of soap? Why couldn’t they simply have a smooth bottom? (Maybe to make the bar easier to grip in the shower? I dunno . . . )
Which side to use? The side with the name? The side with the humps?
I decided that I would put my green heart on the side with the name.
So here we go.
Cut a heart out of your green scrapbook paper.
Spread a coat of the dishwasher safe Mod Podge on the back of the heart.
Then, put the heart onto the soap. Press down really hard to make sure that the heart is sticking to the soap. (Oops! Can you see the corner that isn’t sticking down? I lifted the heart and brushed on some Mod Podge.)
I thought that if I used only one heart to cover the name that it would look dorky. That’s right, folks. Dorky! The heart wold have to be HUGE!
So, I cut out a second heart from a coordinating paper. I put Mod Podge on the back of it and pressed it onto the soap.
Isn’t that cute?
At first, I worried that the color of the scrapbook paper would look awful on the soap. As it’s turning out, it’s not too bad.
Next, spread a coat of Mod Podge on top of the hearts. Make sure that you go beyond the edge of the Valentine. You don’t want water to get under the paper and ruin it!
Let it dry and apply another coat. Apply 3-4 coats.
Here’s my finished green Valentine.
You know in real life, the color of the soap matches the paper much better than you see in these pictures.
All in all, I’m pleased with my green Valentine bar of soap — if you don’t pat attention to the weird bump to the right of the heart with the button. And if you don’t pay attention that the name of the soap is showing through the paper.
Please join the thousands of people across the UK who are turning hearts green to show the love for the people, places, and life that we want to protect for generations to come.
Make, wear, and share your green heart this Valentine’s Day. It’s a beautiful way to begin a conversation about the things we love that climate change threatens and the clean energy choices we must make to protect our world.
Here’s to having a green heart!
