It's Handmade: Bean Mosaic Valentines

Wednesday, 29 January 2020

Bean Mosaic Valentines

This post is sponsored by Plaid Enterprises.

Lately, we’ve been having SO much fun dreaming up fun and new ways to craft bean mosaics. In case you’ve missed them, we made this cute miniature village and these animal portraits! With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we were so excited that the punny phrase “you’ve BEAN on my mind” was the perfect fit for these painted bean mosaics!

You’ve probably made or seen bean art before but what we love about these is using a quick coat of Folk Art Multisurface Acrylic Paint to give them a super playful and modern feel. Just adding this quick pop of color gives these bean art hearts a whole new look that’s completely different from traditional bean mosaics! And you don’t have to limit yourself to one type of bean per heart like we did – give your kids free range to a whole bunch of different shapes and sizes of beans and mix and match them all over the cardboard hearts. Once they dry, just give them a coat of pink paint, write out the bean pun on the back and you’re ready to spread some love this Valentine’s Day!

what you need:

FolkArt Multisurface Acrylic Craft Paint
Paintbrushes
Mod Podge Gloss
Mod Podge Brush Applicator
Dried beans (different varieties)
Cardboard scraps
Pencil
Scissors and/or craft knife

how-to:

Step 1
Use a pencil to draw hearts onto your scrap cardboard. We made a quick template from paper first and traced that onto the cardboard so that the hearts would all have the same shape. Cut out using scissors or a craft knife with a cutting mat.

Step 2
Apply a coat of Mod Podge onto part of the heart, but not the whole thing. Select the type of bean you’d like to use and place them in rows on the Mod Podged area. We liked to start from the outside edge and work inwards, applying more Mod Podge as you cover more and more of the heart.

Step 3
Repeat this process for as many hearts as you’d like, using different beans or even mixing and matching them! Let the Mod Podge dry completely so that the beans feel securely attached.

Step 4
Apply a coat of paint onto each heart. We used a few shades of pink, red, and purple for a colorful mix!

Step 5

Once the side covered in beans has dried, flip the hearts over and paint the backs too. On the back, use a marker to write “You’ve BEAN on my mind!”, with a custom “to” and “from” if you’d like.