DIY Heart Stamps with a Paper Towel Tube

Make adorable DIY heart stamps with simple (and free!) materials that you already have on hand! This fun and easy craft is perfect for kids to create heart-themed art for Valentine’s Day or any creative project.

A black piece of paper has colorful DIY heart stamps prints and sits next to supplies for the project.

DIY heart stamps are the easiest

As a preschool teacher, I am constantly looking for art activities where kids can be as independent as possible.

Many moons ago, I learned that if an art activity takes YOU longer to set up than it does for the kids to actually make their pieces, then it’s your project – not theirs. This has stayed with me since, and I always try to be aware of how long I spend setting activities up compared to how long kids engage with them.

These heart stamps pass the test with flying colors!

❤️ Related: Looking for more Valentine’s Day art activities? Check out our list of 25+ of the best preschool Valentine’s Day activities.

A paper plate has puddles of colorful paint each with DIY heart stamps in them.

Paper towel tubes: the unexpected MVP for DIY heart stamps

We love a good project that uses materials that would normally have been thrown away.

Do you know how to spot a teacher in the wild? Find the person collecting strange, seemingly random items (ex: leaves on the ground, scraps of fabric, paper towel tubes) and squirreling them away. We’re easy to spot. 🤣

Taking something from trash to treasure doesn’t just reduce items in the landfill, but it also gives kids a meaningful, hands-on demonstration of reusing materials in new ways.

Looking for more heart projects? Check these out!

Materials

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Paper towel tube
Paint – we used acrylic here
Black paper

A paper towel tube has been cut unto several small rounds.

How to make DIY heart stamps

Prep paint: Add shallow puddles of paint to a paper plate.
Make stamps: Cut your paper towel into 1” strips. It’s much easier to cut the tube if you flatten it first (and it will need to be flattened anyway!). Once you have your little cardboard rounds, pinch one side to be the pointy bottom of the heart, and push the other side in to make the round tops of the heart.
Stamp: Set your heart stamps in the paint and make stamps on your paper. Don’t worry one bit if the hearts don’t stamp perfectly. If you drip paint, double stamp, etc. – it only adds to the beauty of your piece! Overlapping the hearts is part of the fun, too.

❤️ Love making heart art? Here’s a list with the BEST heart art projects for kids!

DIY heart stamps each sit in a puddle of paint on a paper plate.

Elevate your art

The finished pieces for this project are ADORABLE.

Fold your paper, use a white crayon or pencil, and turn your art into a one-of-a-kind card. The recipient will absolutely melt over the handmade artwork.

Or, glue your paper onto a piece of colored construction paper or cardstock for a colorful “frame.”

We love hanging up this type of art in the classroom because each piece looks different from the rest and represents each unique artist. Some kids will use every color offered, and others will use only one or two colors. Some kids will cover their paper with millions and billions of hearts, and others will put few. This type of project, which yields beautiful, unique pieces of art, is absolutely the best!

Also, play around with the background color! I think I have only ever done this on white paper before, but after seeing Andrea Nelson do this on black paper, I had to give it a try and I LOVE IT. Play around and experiment!