This year we wanted to make something a little bit fun and different for class Valentines for my daughter Sara’s class. Here’s what she came up with!

First, we prepared the molds with Silicone Mold Release to make sure the resin blocks would come out easily.

Next, we mixed up a small batch of TotalBoat 2:1 Epoxy and poured it in as a thin layer. This will make a thin barrier, so that when we put the candy hearts in, they won’t sink and directly hit the bottom.

While the epoxy hardened, we went to CVS and bought as many candy hearts as we could find.

The next step was to line up the candies in the mold, on top of the hardened resin. Sara arranged them in a pattern which happened to be lightest to darkest, with the words facing upwards. This took a lot of boxes of candy hearts! There’s not that many in each box to start with, and Sara also only used the ones that weren’t broken or smudged.

Then we mixed up a larger batch of resin and poured it carefully over the top of all of the candy hearts. I let it harden, and then it came out of the mold really easily.

From here the resin block could be measured. Sara used its dimensions to make a design in Easel, which I would then cut into Valentines.

For the Easel design, Sara made heart shapes and set them to cut all the way through. Then, she chose a couple of different words to carve in through the top clear resin layer. These will all be a little bit different.

From here we could load the resin block into the Carvey and run the design! It looked great.

Next, Sara used the scroll saw to cut the tabs off of each heart and free them from the block. Then she sanded each heart with a sanding sponge and used canned air to get all of the dust off. To prep for the finish, we also wiped each heart down with paint thinner.

Now it was time to finish the candy hearts! We used a glossy wipe-on poly by applying a thin coat using a clean cloth. Then I let them dry overnight. The poly will also help seal the sides of these where there is sugar exposed.