All my life I have adored Swedish Christmas crafts and traditions, and these darling woven paper heart ornaments have always graced our trees. This year our favorite Christmas book inspired my son and I to make a very easy, kid-friendly version of the Swedish woven heart.
Originally I planned to do the actually weaving part with my kids, and although woven hearts are not exactly rocket science, I knew that my kids would get frustrated very, very quickly. Remember, we only do EASY holiday crafts. I decided to make the Christmas craft extra kid friendly! Even preschoolers or toddlers can do this craft, now. Traditional Swedish woven heart ornaments are baskets, but you can decide to skip that step, if you want. (Note: this post contains affiliate links.)
Even if you are not as obsessed with Swedish Christmas hearts as I am, your kids will love to make these ornaments after reading the SPLENDID book, Christmas in Noisy Village. This is my must read Christmas book. It’s by Astrid Lindgren (of Pippi fame) and is a cozy story about neighbor children preparing for the holiday. You can find it (and more!) on my list of Swedish Christmas books.
What you need:
- Red and/or green paper
- Heavy cardstock to make the template, or a heart shaped cookie cutter
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- White paint
- Kitchen sponge cut into a strip with a small square shape at one end
Instructions:
- Make a half-heart template out of thin cardboard. (If you have a heart shaped cookie cutter you can skip this step and simply trace your hearts using the cutter.)
- Fold the red or green paper in half.
- Line up the template with the folded side of the paper. Trace and cut out.
- Make as many hearts as you want.
- Using white paint, stamp squares on the hearts. Kids can decide if they want to mimic the look of a woven heart (see top photo) or just stamp freestyle. Follow your kids’ natural creative instincts!!
- Cut several strips of paper. These will be the handles.
- If you want to turn them into baskets, glue two hearts together, applying glue only along the bottom-side edges. Glue on handle.
- Hang on tree.
- Read more Christmas books!
So what do you think? Is this “woven” paper heart not the easiest Swedish Christmas craft ever? If we can do it, so can you!
More: Swedish Christmas books and Scandinavian folktales are perfect for snuggle time after your ornaments are on the tree.
Or, make our cutest ever tomten garland and then read some tomten books.
Ana says
December 11, 2014 at 9:28 amI love these! They are gorgeous and of course I love how you displayed them on a branch ;)!
Melissa says
December 11, 2014 at 6:52 pmBeautiful Erica!! I love them & am in love with the faux weaving – just brilliant 🙂
Erica MomandKiddo says
December 12, 2014 at 6:32 amAww, thanks Melissa!
Claire says
December 16, 2014 at 12:07 pmGreat post. I have tried to make the Swedish heart ornaments with kindergartners and yes, it was very frustrating. I’m going to give the sponge painted version a try.
Also, I just wrote a blog post about Santa Lucia Day in the little town of Kingsburg where I live.
Could I link to your post?
http://afieldtriplife.com/a-season-of-lights/
Erica MomandKiddo says
December 16, 2014 at 2:03 pmHow fun! I did a mini Santa Lucia Day activity with the school class when my son was in preschool and it was so fun. By all means, link to my post, thank you!
Ann says
December 19, 2014 at 8:09 pmI’ll have to find this book, I love Pippi Longstocking and love your idea for making mock woven hearts!