Valentine Play-Doh Book

When we were kids, Valentine's Day morning wasn't as big a Christmas or a birthday but there was always a little token of love in our empty cereal bowl from my mom and dad. I wanted to carry on this tradition. It just so happened I was looking for a way to store and gift some play-doh I had made and I came up with this adorable little valentine book!

you will need

• four sandwich zip lock bags.

• two different colours of play-doh - 2/3 cups each

•rolling pin

•paper cut to the size of the zip lock bag

•two different sized glasses or cans for punching out holes

•a small spice container or bottle for punching out the small circles

•staples

•permanent markers

•The print out I will supply for the Valentine words

insert a ball of doh into a ziplock bag. squish. roll with rolling pin and get it evenly into the corners. You will probably need to have the bag unzipped.

Fit these pages into another two ziplock bags. They will come out again for more work but this makes it so it fits. Squish it with the tips of your fingers so that it makes a good fit. I put the first layers zipper at the bottom of the second bag so that there were not two zippers at the top getting in each others way.

After removing this outer layer ziplock bag, take the play-doh page and in the exact middle use the smaller can (of the two) to punch a hole. This might punch right through if you have sharp edges. If not, cut it on a cutting board with a knife. Then remove the hole.

Do this with the other colour and the larger tin or glass.

You will want to punch out another inside hole from the centre of the largest circle.

With the small bottle or spice bottle punch even smaller holes from the centres of these same circles.

So now you see the smaller circle in the back when you put the pages together. But WAIT! You still get to decorate!

This is why we took the trouble with the extra circles. Place these little shapes and try to stick them to the outside of the ziplock bag without ruining the shape.

Now these pages should slip fairly easily into the reserved outer bag because you did that step of fitting it right at the beginning (right?)

I sealed around the inside of the circle too so that it didn't go crusty.

The best kind of love I can think to write about is God's love. (John 3:16) So I have included a link to a page that you will be able to use as a template if you would like. By the way, this little poem can be sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon."

Cut out this template and put it inside the bag so that you can write on the outer bag with a marker.

I also added a few more dots and hearts. You can be creative with stickers and whatnot too.

This is a one time book. Once the play-doh is used you will have to make it again so it is really more of a fancy packaging for a gift of play-doh.

Another thought would be to put a picture of your child inside the circle somehow.

God's love is like a circle, a circle big and round

and when I see a circle, no ending can be found

Just like the love of Jesus, it goes on eternally,

so when I see a circle I know that he loves me!

If you would like the template to this please email me and ask for it through my site. I will send it to you right away!

Trace a ziplock bag on one sheet of paper and cut it out.

On a second piece of paper trace three sides of the bag but extend the side with the zipper a little longer so that you can fold it around the bags as if it were a book binding.

Staple and decorate your cover however you would like!

Click for more of my crafty ideas on my blog www.intoabookbybee.com