Valentine’s Day Surprise Hearts

I’m a total sucker for making holidays special for my kids. I can’t help it—there’s just so much fun to be had!

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so this year I decided to package up some fun treats for my family in the form of surprise balls (or, more accurately, surprise hearts!).

Our New Year’s Eve Surprise Balls were such a hit, I can’t wait to give these out!

You Will Need:

• crepe paper streamers
• sticky tape
• scissors
• an assortment of small Valentine’s Day treats

Instructions:

1. I’m a planner by nature, so before assembling my surprise hearts, I laid out the treats in the shape of a heart (to give me some idea of how I’d place everything). That being said, if you’re more of a throw-caution-to-the-wind kind of person, go for it—the process is quite forgiving and your little one will not care how symmetrical the surprise heart is come Valentine’s Day!

2. Now to begin the wrapping process. I tend to begin with the centre object when making surprise balls, but that’s just my personal preference.

Choose an object to start with and begin wrapping it with the crepe paper streamers. Depending on the size of your object, the crepe paper may be too wide to lay perfectly flat at first, but not to worry—it’ll sort itself out as the process continues.

3. With your first object completely covered in crepe paper, add your next object alongside the first and continue the wrapping process. After starting with my largest centre item, I added the objects that would create the bottom point of the heart next (in this case, two chocolate hearts taped back to back).

4. Continue wrapping and adding objects into the surprise ball, keeping an eye on the overall shape.

I saved the two top humps of the heart for last and found that they were easily created by adding two circular chocolates to the top of the triangle shape I’d already formed.

One thing to keep in mind here is that tape is your friend! If it’s easier, tape your object in place before wrapping—it’ll all be hidden under layers and layers of streamers anyways, so no one will know!

Also, if you find that you have an area that is dented or lacking in volume, simply build it up with extra layers of crepe paper. Easy peasey.

Once your surprise heart is fully wrapped, secure it with a piece of sticky tape.

If desired, decorate the surprise heart with heart cut-outs, a marker happy face or glued-on sequins or glitter.

That’s it! Your Valentine’s Day surprise heart is complete! Tuck it away and come the big day, invite your little one to unravel his sweet surprises layer by layer!