DIY Valentine Candy Conversation Heart Plates

Decorating our home for Valentine’s Day

Midwest winters are long, dark and cold. After taking down the Christmas decorations this year, I was feeling a bit depressed. I don’t normally decorate much for Valentine’s Day, but this year I decided to add some cheer and love to our home with DIY Valentine Candy Conversation Heart Plates.

The plate rack hanging on my kitchen wall always hold super cute plates for holidays and other special occasions, but I didn’t have anything for Valentine’s Day. I was in the mood for a DIY project and decided to create plates versus buying something on-line. Check out the steps below that I used to create my DIY Valentine Candy Conversation Heart Plates.

diy candy conversation heart painted plates

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This project turned out a bit more complicated than expected. Creating these conversation heart plates would be so much simpler using a Cricut to create the stencils for painting. Definitely on my wish list! Check out my work-around. A few more steps and a lot more patience required, but it got the job done. Perfect project for a snowy afternoon!

Creating Conversation Heart Templates

I love using Canva to create cards, custom stationary and craft templates. The heart template below was created using Canva and this template was used to paint the conversation hearts on 7.5 inch salad plates.

This template is available on my resource page. If you subscribe to my newsletter below, you will receive instant access to the resource library with this file and other free printables, recipes and travel itineraries.

creating templates for candy heart plates

The original plan was to trace the printed template onto contact paper using a Sharpie marker. Once traced, I planned to cut out the heart and letters using an X-ACTO knife. Unfortunately, the Sharpie didn’t bleed through the paper enough.

supplies for candy conversation heart plates

Plan B for Stencil Preparation

To create the conversation heart stencils, I cut the paper hearts and traced them onto my contact paper. Using the X-ACTO knife, I cut the hearts from sections of contact paper.

Creating the letters turned out to be the trickiest part. I had to flip the text to create the reverse image for cutting the contact paper. Confusing? Follow along.

An internet search revealed an easy trick for creating and transferring the reverse text image. I taped a piece of parchment paper to an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper and printed the conversation heart template using my HP OfficeJet 5258 wireless printer.

heart templates printed on parchment paper

To transfer the letters to the contact paper, I flipped the printed parchment paper and used an old credit card to scrape the parchment and press the ink onto the contact paper.

Once the letters were transferred to the contact paper, I used the X-ACTO knife to carefully cut them out.

After cutting all of the hearts and letter, I began to place my stencils onto the white plates. Using the blade of the X-ACTO knife made it much easier to peel the backing from and place the letters in the center of the hearts.

Painting the Valentine Candy Conversation Heart Plates

Finally time to paint! I used Apple Barrel gloss acrylic paint in Pink Blush and Hot Rod Red, along with sponge brushes. Before painting, clean the plates with rubbing alcohol. This will clean the surface so the paint adheres better.

I waited too long before removing the contact paper stencils and letters. It would have been easier to remove if the paint was still wet versus completely dry. I had a thick layer of paint and was worried I would pull paint off. Tracing around the stencil with the X-ACTO knife helped separate the paint from the contact paper for easier removal.

There was a little bleed through, mainly with the Hot Rod Red paint. I was able to easily scrape this off with the edge of the X-ACTO knife.

scraping paint bleed through with exacto knife

Baking the Paint onto the plates

If you don’t like how your painted plates turned out, you can wash away the paint and try again.

Once you are happy with your design, you will need to set the paint with heat.

Preheat the oven to 325F
Bake painted plates for 30-minutes
Cool plates and repeat baking for another 30-minutes

Valentine Candy Conversation Heart Plates

The plates are not perfect, but they add a fun touch of Valentine’s Day decor to our kitchen. It was a fun afternoon project and I still have eight plates remaining for another project. Think it might be time to treat myself to a Cricut. These plates should not be used to serve food and a light hand washing is recommended to preserve the painted design.