Children's Book Page Heart Valentines

Hey friends! Valentine's Day is coming up and if you're still looking for some diy valentines, be sure to check out the full tutorial on 30 Handmade Days for these Children's Book Page Heart Valentines! I can't wait to give them to the kids in my class Thursday. They are going to be so excited to see some of their favorite book characters-but even more excited when they realize there is candy inside! 

These turned out so cute and are super easy. I'd love to hear what you think! Be sure to head over for the full post!

Floral Love Pillow for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is just around the corner! Be sure to check out the full tutorial for my Floral Love Pillow over at Thirty Handmade Days! It's a quick and easy way to add some Valentine's Day cheer to your home.  

 These letters are so fun. I kinda want to put them on everything. 

Happy Heart Day! 

Fabric Heart Coasters Tutorial on Thirty Handmade Days

So I just realized today that I never shared this super fun news with you! I am still contributing for Mique at Thirty Handmade Days, but I am no longer just a jewelry contributor there (which means I'll be sharing more jewelry here!), I'm a "craft" contributor. The word "craft" can mean pretty much anything so I'm excited to share lots of different types of projects over on 30days! In February, I shared some Fabric Heart Coasters. 

I wanted to be sure and fill you in on them since they're so easy and sweet and would add the perfect soft touche of color to your own home or would make great gifts. You should definitely head over to 30Days and check out the full tutorial. 

While I made them for Valentine's Day, hearts are great for any time of the year in my opinion and you can make them in some fun spring-y colors. They are a fabulous scrap-busting project, too. Go check them out and be on the look out for my next contributor post, too. Hint: it'll be another great spring sewing project!  

Anthro Knockoff Heart Collector Pillow

Meet my new love. My new lovey dovey love pillow. I love it. It's Valentine's Day week- I can totally say love that many times.

I've had my eye on Anthropologie's Heart Collector Pillow for awhile now thinking it would be a fun DIY instead of purchasing the original for $198!!! And turns, out, it was. And mine was FREE. Woo!

I just LOVE the saying on the heart. You could write anything on your heart, but I loved their quote so much I decided to just do the full copy-cat. :)

Here's the original: Anthropologie Heart Collector Pillow

I'm definitely not the first to think of re-doing this fun pillow. There are a few others that re-did this pillow out in the blog world like this one: A Thousand Hearts Pillow from Sweet Savannah and this one: antho-inspired pillow from Hearts and Sharts. Here's my version anyway! 

I love this pillow for some neutral Valentine's Day decorations or just a year-round happy lovey pillow. 

Let's make one!!

I'll be showing you how to create the front of this pillow case cover of this pillow along with how to sew a simple envelope pillow. There are a TON of envelope pillow tutorials out there, but I reviewed this tutorial from Delia Creates before creating this pillow.

Gather your materials:

15 inch square pillow form
1/2 a yard of fabric (linen-looking natural muslin)
1/4 yard of white duck canvas
Coordinating thread for pillow case, black contrasting thread for hearts
Heart Template
A Thousand Hearts Quote Template
Water soluble marking pen
Nice fabric scissors (this makes cutting those hearts super easy!) and pinking shears
iron

I had a pillow form I'd picked up for 99 cents at a thrift store a couple years ago just sitting around so I measured that to determine the size of my pillow form. My pillow was a 15 inch square so I cut a 15 x 15 inch square and two more 12 x 15 inch pieces to make up the envelope back. Depending on how large your pillow is you'll need anywhere from a 1/4 to a 1/2 yard of fabric. The fabric on the anthro pillow looks like a nice linen, but I had a linen-looking muslin left over from some wedding projects so I just used that. The material is a little thin, but it worked out great.

You'll also need some white duck canvas for the hearts (around 1/4 yard). Again, I had some white canvas scraps laying around so I used those. I chose this canvas fabric because I knew it was durable, but would fray nicely around the edges of the hearts. Don't forget to pre-wash your fabric!

For each of the 15 x 12 inch pieces, create a double folded hem by folding the end up a 1/2 inch and pressing well, repeat pressing well. Then, using coordinating thread, sew down the double folded hem close to the edge of the hem. Do this for both back pieces, set aside.

Next, let's trace and cut out the hearts. 

Maybe you have an awesome free-hand and you could just draw a bunch of different sized hearts, but I don't. :) I created a few templates to trace onto my canvas fabric. You can access my templates here. Use your water soluble marking pen to trace the hearts onto the canvas leaving enough space around the edges to cut a 1/4 inch border on the outside of each heart.

Cut each heart out as shown here.

Yay! Pile of hearts!

Create Heart with Words

Now for this heart, I simply taped a piece of fabric to some card stock and ran it through my printer. (Cut fabric to be the same size as the card stock and tape well around the edges. You can also use spray adhesive, but I was out of that so I used scotch tape. Just make sure it is nice and flat against the paper) If you need more details on how to print on fabric you can follow this tutorial. It's super easy. Then just place the largest heart template on top of the words, trace and cut out. You can use my template  for the quote, if you want to use the same words that fit inside the largest heart template.

Pin hearts in place.

Once all your hearts are cut, place them on the front piece of your pillow cover and start pinning.

Pin and pin and pin some more. Yay! Heart takeover.

Now let's sew! 

Exchange the coordinating thread for the black contrasting thread on your machine. Then, set your machine to a small stitch length (like 1 or 2). This will make it easier to create nice curves. I liked to start sewing my hearts towards the bottom facing the point of the heart because I felt the heart didn't move around as much when I did it this way. Start sewing there, remembering to back stitch. Only do a few back stitches so you minimize the darker line in that spot. When you get to the point, leave your needle down, lift your presser foot, turn your fabric until your needle is facing the line again, and continue sewing. On the curves, only sew a couple stitches, then turn your project so the needle is facing the correct way. The picture above on the right shows how I have my needle lined up perfectly on the drawn heart. If you have it in line the whole time, you'll have a nicely sewn heart. Since you're using contrasting thread, it's important that these aren't too messy. 

Keep sewing until you've sewn all the hearts. This may take awhile. I watched a movie on my kindle while I sewed and it flew by! :) You can obviously see all the blue lines from my water soluble ink, still but all those will come out when you wash it! 

Next, wash and dry the top piece of your cover. 

You wouldn't normally need to wash your fabric (again!), but we want the hearts to have those nice frayed edges, so in this case you will. It'll look like this when you're done. Wash and dry on delicate cycle and then take an iron and press it so it's nice and flat for sewing. 

Lay the two back pieces on top of the cover right sides facing each other, with the two back pieces overlapping. Switch back to coordinating thread and sew up all the sides using 1/2 inch seam, then cut the edges with pinking shears. (You could also serge the ends or use a zig zag stitch on the edges.) Be sure to clip the corners to decrease the amount of bulk in there allowing you to have crisp corners.

Turn that cover inside out (through the envelope back), use a point turner or a blunt pencil to push out the corners, and press the edges flat. Press the entire pillow cover and trim any too long frayed edges for a nice finished product.

Finished! 

I was a little worried about the ink from the printer fading or even washing away, but it held up well. Not sure how many washes it could withstand, but I don't plan on having to wash it too much, so it'll be fine. 

This sweet pillow will be on display in our living room for now, but I have a feeling it will find a permanent, year-long home in our bedroom after Valentine's Day. 

It's just too cute to be seasonal. 

I hope you loved this tutorial! 

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what Valentine's Day projects you're working on this week! Leave a link in the comments and I'll come check them out! 

Need more ideas? Check out these Valentine's Day and heart ideas from the archives:

Fabric Heart Banner and Free Template

Pre-Planned Date Night Basket

Color Block and Scallop Valentine's Day Wreath

Ruffles and Hearts Table Runner

Have a Happy Valentine's Day week!

Handmade Valentines for Kids-Eye Love You!

I cannot take any credit for this cuteness. I first saw these I Love You Cards from the Kraze 4 Paper Etsy shop and pinned them immediately. They are so cute. I would have definitely just bought these, if I had thought about it early enough.

See? Cute!! (original I Love You cards available for purchase here!)

Instead of planning ahead, I didn't think about what I would do about valentines for my kiddos until the day before. Oops. So around 4:00 (before I left school) I tried some printables from my Valentine's board on Pinterest, but our color printer was acting up so that idea was out. Then I came across this idea I'd pinned forever ago. I knew mine wouldn't be as great as the original, but I grabbed some jumbo googly eyes from my classroom closet and took them home in hopes to recreate the idea somehow with whatever else I could come up with at home.

Of course, I didn't even start to make them until 10:00 that night. Ha. I was tired, but they got done and the kids LOVED them today. 

What did you do for valentines this year? Go handmade or store bought? I'd love to see your ideas! Leave your link in the comments and I'll check it out!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Thanks for reading and Eye Love You!! :)

Color Block and Scallop Valentine Wreath

I know I'm really late in posting any Valentine projects, but I couldn't not post it. :) I have had this wreath mostly done besides the hand embroidery for the past week and a half, but have had a hard time finding the time to finish it! I've been trying to narrow down some vendors for my wedding and, of course, at school. I hope you know I would definitely rather be blogging!

So this wreath was so super fun to make. As soon as I saw this Scallop Felt Ghost Wreath by Tatertots and Jello, I just knew I had to make a wreath using those felt scallop strips. SO cute. I thought it would be fun to add in some extra color besides just my usual go-to color for valentine red. I love how the color blocking turned out and the scallops are precious.

The various garlands were so fun to make, too. Cuteness.

If you'd like to make one too, follow along! 

Materials Needed

straw Wreath Form (with plastic left on)

this template from Tatertots and Jello

15 red strips of felt cut into scallops (25 x 4 inches for all strips)

5 pink strips of felt cut into scallops

and 3 white strips of felt cut into scallops

hot glue gun

coordinating embroidery floss and needle

various garland materials: more felt, ric rac trim, tulle, matching thread, embroidery floss

Cover the wreath in scallop strips.

Cut felt into strips and then cut out scallops using the template. You can print the template onto card stock, cut out tape together and it creates a long scallop strip about 25 inches long.  Pin the strip to a couple or 3 strips of felt at a time and cut around the template. 

Once strips are cut, start wrapping red scallop strips around the wreath form, making sure entire form is covered and scallops' hills and valleys are alternating. Use hot glue to secure. 

Cover about 3/4 of the wreath in red scallops. Cover about 3/4 of the remaining portion of the wreath with pink and then cover the remaining portion white. To end the wrapping part, tuck the flat end under some scallop hills and valleys and glue to secure so you can't tell where the end is. 

Create garlands and attach to wreath.

Heart Garland

To create the simple heart garland, just cut out hearts from two pieces of felt at a time to get matching hearts. hot glue one of the matching hearts under the ric rac and then the other matching heart on top. Continue until length of ric rac is full. I alternated Large pink hearts that  I later embroidered using a blanket stitch and smaller red hearts. 

Tulle Pom Garland

To create the tulle pom garland, cut a 10 by 6 inch length of tulle (I like to use these tulle rolls you can find at Hobby Lobby). 

Fold the tulle over itself three times and then up again once. 

Cut all the edges off the folded tulle to create a stack of tulle strips. Use a matching piece of thread to tie a knot in the center of the strips. Cut lengthwise cuts into the tulle up to the tied center on both sides. Trim the ends to make the tulle more square and ready to be fluffed into ball form.

Fluff the tulle into a ball. Fold the tulle ball over ric rac and secure wit hot glue. Continue for entire length of ric rac. 

Fringe Garland

The fringe garland should be pretty self explanatory-simply take a strip of felt and cut tiny vertical cuts into it all the way across. I used a running stitch across the top of this garland. 

Bow Garland

The bow garland was simple, too, and I did not take pictures. Simply make felt bows by cutting rectangles. Fold rectangles like a fan and then use a tiny rectangle of the same color felt to bind the fanned felt in the middle. Trim the edges with pinking sheers. Make enough bows (the same size) to create a garland. Glue the corners of the bows together with hot glue. 

XOXOXO

After all the garland is glued on, cut out some Xs and Os from felt (2 pieces per letter) and use a blanket stitch around the edges to secure the pieces together. Simply hot glue the letters on top! 

I hope you enjoyed this Valentine Wreath tutorial!! 

Thanks for reading!!

and Happy Valentine's Day!!!