Last year, the Barbie movie may have been on the radar of many young people and teens, but my daughters are excited about the gothy ghoulish retro-tinged romance of Lisa Frankenstein.
This love story between a teen girl and a reanimated corpse is out in time for Valentine’s Day, which makes it a perfect little card idea for Valloween crafting.
Fans of the spookier romances out there might like to share their heart with someone… but not a Valentine… so here’s a simple Valloween-style paper craft in the spirit of love stories like Lisa Frankenstein and Warm Bodies.
First, you want a nice green or grey piece of thick cardstock or construction paper. Some construction paper can be pretty flimsy, so it’s fine to glue together two pieces of paper. I did. If you don’t have one in the right color, use a crayon or marker to color your own.
Next trace your hand, just like kids have been doing in grade school since time began. Remember those “hand turkeys” at Thanksgiving? Before cutting the hand, you want it to look more like a zombie or ghoul hand. Lightly draw over the ends of the fingers so they look bent and more like a claw. Erase the original centerlines of the fingers, then cut out the hand, but don’t cut the bottom flat. Have it hanging down a bit with a jagged edge, sort of like it has been ripped off a zombie.
Now, just draw some stitches, dirt, blood, or whatever you feel to give it a good zombie or Frankenstein hand look.
Of course, you could just make a small valentine, and call it good, but that’s not the Valloween way. We’re going to make a simplified, “anatomically correct” heart.
The heart features a network of atria, veins, valves, and arteries, but we’re not going for medical perfection, just a cartoony fun version of a heart. This won’t be used to study anything.
In red paper, of course, begin to cut a plain valentine about half the size of your paper hand, but with rounded edges and a more flattened top.
Also in red, draw a circle with three little tubes coming from the top, as sort of a makeshift aorta. Now draw two y-shaped tubes that very loosely represent a vena cava and pulmonary artery. We’re going to leave the rest of the anatomy off. Remember, this is supposed to be simple, but it will get the point across.
Glue the “aorta” in the center top of the heart and your two other pieces on either side of it, slightly overlapping. I cut a slit in the big aorta circle to place one of the other pieces through. You don’t have to do this.
There’s a basic shape that looks more like a heart than a valentine. Once done, draw some little veins or details where the arteries are just to give it some detail. Again, you don’t have to be textbook perfect. This is a goofy ‘toon heart.
Make sure to write a special message in the main body of the heart, and add some glitter if you like. Even undead beings like pretty things.
Glue the heart in the palm of the hand so it looks like it is holding it, and give it to someone you love, or even just like.
This Valloween, remember it may be “memento mori” for all of us, but at least we know that love never dies.
