happy valentine's day heart banner | tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is here, but the crafting fun isn't over yet. If you haven't had a chance yet, you should check out the Valentine Series Wrap-Up at The Twinery for inspiration overload and tons of adorable free printables.

How's this for a clean. simple. fast. You could make this card in no time at all and have it waiting on his pillow when he gets home from work...wink, wink. My Valentine won't be home until Friday night from his business trip and I miss him. A lot.

Hi, I'm Monika and I'm a Senior Designer for The Twinery, privileged to begin my third year of creating projects with THE most fabulous baker's twine ever. Today, I'm going to share the banner I created for their Valentine Series recently.

This project is so simple and can be done while sitting in the school pick-up line or even while watching your favorite night time show with your Sweetie. To prove it, here's a tutorial for you:

TUTORIAL

1. Gather your supplies: selection of your favorite baker's twine from The Twinery, several shades of craft felt, sharp scissors work best when cutting felt, heart shape template, 3/16" hole punch,  pencil
2. Trace your heart shape onto TWO layers of felt. From my experience, cutting two shapes at once ensures that your hearts match up perfectly each time. Sharp scissors are a must!
3. Using your 3/16" hole punch, which is considerably smaller than your normal office supply store hole punch, punch through both layers of felt using the hole punch as a guide when spacing your holes. You'll want to place one hole at the bottom of the heart and make sure to place one hole at the top center of the heart as well. My hole punch is from Fiskars.
4. Triple knot your baker's twine to keep it from slipping through the hole when stuffing your baker's twine and felt heart.
5. Because I always craft on a whim, I didn't have quilt batting to stuff my felt hearts and substituted  cotton balls. 4 cotton balls, stretched a bit to thin them out, seemed to work perfectly. Or, you could be completely prepared for your project and use quilt batting. You can see in the photo that I stopped a bit shy from the end, stuffed my cotton balls inside and then proceeded sewing up the rest of the heart shape.
6. After all your hearts have been crafted, snip a length of baker's twine and sew through a hole and double over your twine. Do this to each side of the heart. Now, tie the loose strands together tying a knot for security and then tie your bow.

I dare not count how many hearts we ended up making as Isabella and Victoria decided these hearts were perfect for their classmates and Teachers. Yep, we had felt, baker's twine and cotton balls all over the place last night as they filled their glassine bags with sweet treats and felt hearts while Mommy stapled their bag toppers on. 

If you happen to make a few extra hearts, you could also use a heart to decorate a candle. This one happens to be battery operated, so the felt is not a fire hazard.

Here's where you can find more of my projects for The Twinery and be sure you enter this giveaway!