The Crafty Quinn

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Simple Gumball Machine for Valentine's Day

photo of  a heart shaped gumball container filled with handmade paper hearts

If you’ve been to Dollar Tree in the past week, you may have started to see Valentine’s Day decor out on their shelves (and maybe even some St. Patrick’s Day decor). Dollar Tree is wasting no time moving on to spring and things pastel colors and neither am I!

Today I’m going to share with you a simple way to makeover their brand new heart-shaped Valentine’s Day-themed miniature gumball machines.

Here you can check out the full tutorial visually or some other 2022 Valentine’s Day decor DIY ideas!

photo of  separated gumball machine

Step 1: Spray Paint Gumball Machine Base

First you're going to want to separate the top piece from the bottom piece of the gumball machine. You're going to give the bottom piece of the machine enough coats of spray paint to cover it in whatever color of your choosing. I went with a light satin pink color from Krylon found at Hobby Lobby in their spray paint section.

photo of white and pink ribbon

Step 2: Decorate with Ribbon

Next, I layered some pink and white gingham style ribbon with some strings of faux pearl ribbon from Dollar Tree and hot glued that to the top center of the heart-shaped lid of the gumball machine.

photo of a person filling a heart shaped gumball machine with wooden hearts

Step 3: Fill Gumball Machine

After that, I filled the lid of the gumball machine with all kinds of those small wooden Dollar Tree Valentine's Day cutout fillers.

photo of materials such as twine, lace and ribbon

Step 4: Add Finishing Touches

Last but not least, I wrapped some jute twine around the base of the lid of the gumball machine and hot glued it in place in the back where you can't see it. And for the finishing touch, I used the nee heart-shaped lace that Dollar Tree sells as part of their new Valentine's Day decor. I cut off the top layer of this lace so it was just the hearts strung to one another so it would fit perfectly to the base of the gumball machine.

photo of the finished gumball machine

I love the end result and think it’s perfect for a tiered tray! I also made this heart-shaped riser to stand it on. Check out all of this and more on my YouTube channel, The Crafty Quinn.