A Homemade Two-Hearts Game

14 February or Valentine's Day has long been a familiar celebration here in Latvia as well. I wouldn't say I'm head-over-heels about such imports as Halloween, Valentine's Day, hen or stag parties, but I am certainly in favour of the fact that there can never be too much love and warmth in everyday life. That is why this year, just for the day of all lovers, I have come up with several ideas to delight those near and dear. This time let's make together a board game featuring that indispensable Valentine's Day symbol - hearts. For those tired of red or pink at this celebration, I recommend freely using any other equally cheerful colour instead.

To make the game you will need:

• wool roving (2 colours - bright red and lettuce green);
• felting needle;
• foam;
• a large piece of thick red paper or cardboard;
• scissors;
• felt-tip pens;
• ruler.

Making steps.

Step 1.
Divide the two-colour wool roving into ten roughly equal parts. Then use the felting needle to make 10 small hearts using the dry felting technique - five red and five green. That is, stab the wool roving with the needle, gradually giving it a heart shape. The longer you stab, the firmer and denser the heart will be.

For a more defined heart indentation, you can make a small cut with scissors and then carefully felt the ends closed. No need to worry if the hearts turn out slightly different from one another in size and shape - human hearts aren't all the same either. :)

Step 2.
When the hearts are ready, take a large piece of red paper and cut out one large heart shape. First trace the heart outline in pencil, of course. To make the heart more proportional, fold the paper in half before cutting.

Step 3.
Draw a grid on the paper heart with a black felt-tip pen, such that each of the grid's squares can fit one of the felted hearts.

The game is practically ready. A wish or a love poem can be written on the edge of the paper heart. This game can be presented as a gift and also used to while away evenings with the family. In my opinion, children will enjoy it too, as the felted hearts are extremely soft and pleasant to touch.

How to play? From the drawn grid you have surely recognised that this is the good old noughts-and-crosses game that everyone knows from childhood and which was usually played with a classmate, scribbling in the margins of a squared notebook during a boring lesson at school. The principle: form a straight line with three hearts of one colour (diagonally, horizontally or vertically) by taking turns - one player at a time - placing one heart each in the squares defined by the grid. The other player can also prevent a straight line from forming by placing their colour heart in the way. The winner is the one who manages to form a straight line with three hearts of their colour. Since this is a Valentine's Day game, various forfeits can be demanded from the loser - starting with a sweet kiss and ending... well, you each have your own fitting imagination. :)