How to Make a Bleeding Heart Plant to Haunt your DIY Halloween Decor

Watch the build video here!

In the second installment of our spooky plants series, we're going to craft a Bleeding String of Hearts. This is a haunted DIY hybrid of the delicate string of hearts plant and the dramatic bleeding heart plant. These are two of my real-life favourites!

If you're interested in checking out the haunted spider plant I made out of foam hair rollers, or the deadly carnivorous plant that started as a walnut, you can check out the articles at the linked text or watch the build video on my YouTube channel here!

The plant is housed in a weathered terracotta plant pot. If you want to see how to add age and patina to a terracotta pot, I've broken that down step-by-step here. 

In addition to a small plant pot, you'll also need some craft foam, floral wire, and various colours of craft acrylic paint. I used a woodburning tool to carve some texture into the foam, but you can skip this part.  UV resin was used to make the "blood" dripping from the leaves.

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Step 1: I made paper templates in a few sizes and cut out a batch of craft foam leaves.

Step 1: Creating the Leaves

The real string-of-hearts plant has teeny-tiny leaves. I'm going to make this project a bit easier on myself by making my leaves a bigger.

I cut bunch of a few sizes of leaves out of a sheet of inexpensive craft foam. I found this is the kids-crafting area of my local craft store.

Step 2: Using a woodburning tool to add texture to the foam.

Step 2: Adding Texture

I happen to own a woodburning tool. I've seen other crafters use these tools to add texture to foam, so I thought I'd give it a go. If you're going to try this, please do it outside, there were a lot of stinky fumes!

I focused on creating a channel down the middle of each leaf for the fake blood to drip down, then added some veins to the leaves.

If you don't have a woodburning tool, try experimenting with the tip of a hot glue gun!

Step 3: Joining leaves into pairs with wire and covering the wire ends with tissue paper.

Step 3: Pairing the Leaves

On the real string-of-hearts plant the leaves grow in pairs.  To mimic this effect, I created a small loop in a short piece of floral wire. I zig-zagged both ends, then glued them onto the back of the leaves. I used a bit of tissue paper to hide the back of the wire.  You can see this process a little better in the build video. 

Step 4: Applying paint with a a make-up sponge. I ripped the edges of the sponge off for a more mottled look.

Step 4: Painting

I used sponges and makeup wedges to layer on a few shades of green acrylic craft paint. The sponges helped to create a mottled paint effect that is similar to how the leaves of this plant look in nature.

Step 5: (Above) Creating a resin "blood" drip on fishing line. (Below) Blending the cured resin drip into the leaf.

Step 5: Adding the "Bleeding" Effect

I used UV resin to create the "bleeding" effect on my string -of-hearts.

I tinted the resin red with a bit of red mica powder from my stash. In the end, I'm not really happy with the shade of red  and the process was really tedious.

I laid down a drip of resin on a non-stick mat, then placed in a short length of monofilament fishing line. I cured that assembly, flipped it over, then used a toothpick to place more resin on the back of the drip, rounding it out. I cured this again.

I used a pin to poke a hole into the foam at the tip of each leaf. I fit the fishing line into the pinhole and added a bit more resin to blend the joint.

Step 6: (Above) Fitting a scrap of foam into the terracotta pot. (Below) Covering the foam with craft moss.

Step 6: Preparing the Base for the Plant

Using an aged terracotta pot I prepared earlier,  (She how in the build video or read the article.) I fit a scrap of foam floor mat into the top. Cardboard would work here too.

I covered the foam in a bit of preserved sheet moss (from the floral section of the dollar store) for a more natural look.

Step 7: The assembled "Bleeding" Sting-of-Hearts vines.

Step 7: Stringing the Leaves and Assembly

Finally it was time to string the leaf pairs onto some lengths of floral wire.  I made three vines of different lengths.

I poked the ends of the wire into plant pot, and secured with a DIY wire staple (made from floral wire) where necessary.  And it's done! 

The finished plant!

​If you want to watch each step of this project in detail, please check out the build video on my YouTube channel below. If you give this project a try, it would make my day if you’d share it with me. I’m @JaneSawyerMakes on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Threads,  and Twitter (X). Please share and pin this article!