Stitchin' Valentine Cards {Tutorial}

I miss the days of exchanging Valentines with classmates at school.  Making the fancy boxes adorned with red and pink paper, picking out the box of cards at the drug store, and handing out specially-chosen cards to my friends.  How fun that I can relive that a bit now that Soren is in school.

He's still a little young to get the whole concept, and after taking him down the Valentine aisle at Target with little interest on his part in picking out cards, I decided it would be fun to make them with him.

I wanted to come up with something fun and unique to give to his classmates, no candy or junky little toys that get quickly get thrown out.  Since S has been taking an interest in one of my passions--needlework--I thought it would be fun for the kids to have their own needle, yarn and plastic canvas for stitching.

Soren enjoys stitching alongside me when I'm working on something, and he really liked this project,, which you can see in the photo above.  I'm hopeful that his classmates will like it too, especially that they each get their very own plastic needle.  Here's how we finished the Valentines for giving.

If you'd like to make some for your own friends, they're really simple to make, and you can dress them up any way you'd like, tucked into a card or stuck to some pretty paper.

MATERIALS:

• Plastic Canvas (either heart shaped or sheets that can be cut into hearts.  The heart ones I bought were $2 for a package of 10 at a craft store).
• Plastic yarn needles (purchased here as a pack of 40).
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Paper doilies, construction paper, or scrapbook paper
• Printable tags, if desired.  I'm sharing the ones I designed HERE
• Clear Tape, pencil or markers for signing the cards
• Stickers, etc. for embellishment, if desired (we used some glittery foam hearts)

STEP ONE

Cut a 12" length of yarn and tie to the needle so it doesn't slip off in transit.

Then make a few stitches onto the canvas heart (or have your child do it, which is more fun for them).  I made a simple "X" in the center, just to hold the needle.

Then just tuck the needle into the "X" and fold the rest of the yarn nicely around the back and secure with a piece of tape.

STEP TWO

Create a backdrop for your heart out of paper hearts, either doilies, construction paper, or other paper.  I picked up some paper doilies in a variety of colors at Target.  It also came with two sized of doilies, which I layered on top of each other.

Arrange your heart, as well as the printable tag on top.  You can make your own tag too, using paper.  You might even change the wording to something like "Valentine, you leave me in stitches" or "You're SEW cool, Valentine!"  Totally up to you and your kids.

STEP THREE

Assemble your Valentines.  Print and cut out the tags and have your child sign them and embellish them if they want.

Thread a piece of yarn (in retrospect, I would have used thin ribbon here, since it's prettier) to attach your hearts to the background.

Poke the thread through the papers (I used a metal yarn needle here, but you could use a skewer or other sharp object to poke a hole),

then tie in a bow or knot on top.

Do the same for the plastic heart.  I ended up replacing the yarn on the heart tag with a ribbon, just because I thought it looked prettier.

Now we just need to finish making another 15 for the class.  Hopefully they'll have as much fun practicing their sewing skills as we did making this.

Again, if you'd like to use my printable tags, you can download them HERE. If you want to make your own tags, I found free stitching fonts called Kingthings Stitch and Stitches that I liked.  Have fun creating!