Craft for carers

Show your appreciation for our amazing NHS staff and carers with this blue heart made from hot melt glue. Just choose which size heart you want to create, and hang it in your window to show your appreciation.

• A 12mm glue gun (like the tec 305-12)
• A printable NHS stencil, download either the A4 Version or A3 Version
• Glue! For the A3 version you will need 10 blue sticks & 5 white sticks
• For the A4 version you will need 5 blue sticks & 5 white sticks
• A Tec Mat
• Baking paper
• Cutting knife
• Ribbon or string
• Marker pen

To begin, decide which size heart you’d like to make. Download and print our handy A4 PDF stencil or, if you really want to show your appreciation, the A3 PDF stencil.

Next, switch on your glue gun and load it with a blue glue stick.

While you’re waiting for your glue gun to reach operating temperature, take a length of baking paper and place it over your PDF print out from earlier.

Take your marker pen and carefully trace the heart and NHS logo on to the baking paper. Then put this to one side for a moment.

Taking your tec mat, place it over the NHS logo on your print out. Carefully trace the logo with your marker pen.

Use your cutting knife, cut the NHS logo out of the tec mat, trying to keep your edges as clean as possible.

Laying out your baking paper with the heart design from earlier, place the NHS logo in the middle of the heart.

Your glue gun should now be at operating temperature. Fill the heart in with blue glue, taking care around the edge of the heart and dispensing glue close to the edge of your NHS stencils.

With your glue gun, add a hoop at the top of each side of your heart so that you can hang it later.

Wait at least 5 minutes for the blue glue to cool down and become solid. In the meantime, run the rest of the blue glue stick through your gun (don’t pull the glue stick out of the gun! Follow our best practice guide here, or use a Gluesaver). Load your gun with white glue, and make sure that your gun is dispensing pure white with no trace of blue before moving to the next step.

Making sure that the blue glue is cool, carefully start to peel your NHS letter stencils away from the glue heart.

Use your glue gun to fill the space left behind with white glue to create your ‘NHS’ logo.

Wait another five minutes for the glue to cool completely, before peeling the entire heart away from the baking paper.

Thread some string or ribbon through the hoops at the top of the glue heart.

Then simply hang it proudly in your window to show your support for our incredible NHS staff.