Create this festive popsicle stick heart in a few easy steps! When you’re done, check out this origami heart tutorial. This post contains affiliate links.

Prove me wrong: Craft sticks are literally the best. They’re cheap, easy to find, fun to work with, and the possibilities are endless. In this fun, quick craft, we’re going to dress up a few jumbo craft sticks with materials you can find at the dollar store (that is, if you don’t already have them at home!)

It’s so easy and cute that you might want to churn out a whole bunch – use them as decor, or glue notes on the back to give to special people in your life.

You can use these hearts to accent a tiered tray setup, a door or window hanging, a wall garland, or any shelf or surface. You can attach one to a gift, treat, or card to show some extra love.

This craft is fun and appropriate for any age. The youngest crafters might benefit from some small process adjustments – for you readers, I’ve instructed you to place the sticks at an angle, with sample pictures to guide you. For small children, you might want to provide a paper outline to guide the position of the sticks.

Also, you’ll be using a cut-off piece of a craft stick to connect the other sticks together, but to avoid sharp edges for the youngest crafters, you might want to provide something else to serve as the connector, like mini craft sticks. And of course, I would recommend that the youngest crafters use liquid glue rather than a hot glue gun. Craft sticks are porous materials, so tacky glue, or even plain white glue can work.

I’ve suggested decorative elements that I was able to find at a local dollar store – in this case, it was sold as “table scatter” for party decor, which I repurposed as a craft embellishment.

But as we all know, dollar store supplies vary – even the same store might not carry the same decorations from day to day. So shop around and use whatever you find; there’s sure to be something. If you specifically like the designs used here, you can try making your own by cutting out shapes from felt or craft paper. Otherwise, let your imagination go wild with buttons, stickers, pom poms, or any other embellishments you have.

What you need

Jumbo craft sticks
Felt heart and key table scatter (optional/varies)
Iridescent glitter glue
Baker’s twine
Glue gun and glue sticks – low temp works best. Liquid glue is also OK.
Acrylic craft paint (I used pink)
Paintbrush
Scissors

How to make a popsicle stick heart

1. To create the heart, line up four jumbo craft sticks at a slight angle on your work surface. Cut another craft stick to the width of the four lined up sticks, and glue it across the ends of the first four to hold them together. I recommend a low temp glue gun for this, but you can also use liquid glue if you have time to wait for it to dry.

Repeat this step for the second half of the heart, this time lining up the craft sticks at the opposite angle.

2. Lay one of the halves across the other, line up the bottom edges, and glue them together. Allow the project to dry.

3. Paint the front and sides of the heart with pink acrylic paint, or the color of your choice. Let it dry, and apply a second coat if desired.

4. When you are sure the paint is dry, squeeze out a small amount of glitter glue and spread it over the surface of the heart. The easiest way to do this is with your finger, but you can also use a plastic-bristled paintbrush or a spreading stick. Let it dry before continuing.

5. Select a heart and key shape from a variety pack of felt table scatter, or the embellishments of your choice. Attach them to the top center of the heart using the glue gun (or liquid glue). Tie baker’s twine (or the string of your choice) into a bow and glue it to the heart.

This is the end of my process for creating the heart craft as shown, but you can continue to decorate yours – maybe you’d like to use a permanent marker or paint marker to write the name of your loved one on the heart, or add your own name to show who it’s from.