Little Sweet Hearts

Time for a few sweet Valentine crafts!  January is a great time to start them...less pressure, which means more fun, knowing that Valentine's Day is still weeks away.  I decided to play around with some red and white fabric, embroidery floss, felt, and embellishments to make some sweet hearts that will be fun to give to friends with a card and to tuck into vignettes around the house.  So here we go...

I mostly used fabric for the fronts of the hearts, and felt for the backs.  But this polka dot felt was a must for the front of one of the hearts.  Just fold some scrap paper in half and cut out a heart about the size and shape you desire, to make a pattern.  Then cut out the fronts and backs to your hearts, using that pattern.

I used a woven fabric for the white heart, which had places for me to freehand a cross-stiched heart.  You could use aida cloth for that too.  Or even burlap!  Red felt worked great for the backs of the hearts.  Felt is so easy with which to work.  Use 2 strands of red, black, or white embroidery floss for stitching the heart fronts and backs together with a running stitch...leaving a little opening with your needle and thread still intact.

Using a small funnel stuck into the little opening, I filled each heart with some fragrant loose leaf tea.  Orange Cinnamon tea makes a great choice!  If you don't have loose tea, you can use fiberfill or dried lavender or even dry rice with a few dried herbs mixed in.  Yum!

Then finish stitching your heart together, knotting it on the back.  Give her a sniff...ahhh.  Not only cute as can be, but fragrant as well.

I embellished the front of each heart using buttons, felt hearts, stick on jewels, and ribbon.

Aren't they sweet tucked into a little white vintage berry bowl?

I am going to enjoy them in my sunny craft room for a week or two...then...

I

...give most of them as gifts.  I have one of them tucked into a shadow box too.  Cute little Valentine surprise peeking out from that unexpected place.

These are all hand cut, sewn, embellishments glued...so you can easily sit and do this in the evenings.  We are getting back in the swing of having one hour after supper most nights where we are 'unplugged' from electronics.  That one hour gave me a head start on creating these.  If you made these alittle bigger ( mine are 2 inches tall) and filled them with dry rice, they would make cute hand warmers!  Use your imagination and above all ENJOY!

Blessings,

Donna

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