On the eve of Valentine's Day, wewe are puzzled by the necessity of choosing or making traditional gifts for this day. And what is it customary to give on Valentine's Day? Of course, valentines. Therefore, any souvenirs and crafts in the form of a heart will be an appropriate and desired gift. And if you like to craft, then making hearts with your own hands from fabric or paper will not be particularly difficult for you. Beautiful valentines can be sewn, molded, knitted, glued or cut out ... In general, hearts can be almost anything - it all depends on your handicraft skills and your desire. Here are just a few examples of using various techniques to make valentines.
Hearts made of felt
A very touching and nice giftwill be a souvenir heart sewn from felt. Felt is an easy-to-work-with material. It is soft, but holds its shape well. The edges of parts cut from felt do not crumble and do not require additional processing to secure the cut. By the way, if for some reason you cannot find felt, then ordinary viscose napkins for household needs will successfully replace it. Such napkins can be bought in the home goods department of any supermarket. Viscose, like felt, is pleasant and easy to work with. So, for such valentines you will need:
- felt or viscose wipes;
- thread of a floss;
- sewing needle;
- scissors;
- cardboard for the template;
- pencil;
- sintepon or cotton wool;
- multicolored ribbons with a width of two to five millimeters;
- buttons, beads, sequins or beads for decoration.
First you need to cut out the cardboard templatein the form of a heart. One template will be enough for you even for several hearts. So, place the cardboard heart on the felt or on the napkin (on the back side of the future valentine) and trace it. For one heart, you will need two parts. Try to make two different hearts. More precisely, not different, but differently decorated. So, for the first version of the valentine, we cut out two heart-shaped blanks, one round piece that will imitate a patch and choose a cute button slightly smaller in size than the patch. Now we place the patch on the front side of one piece and sew it on with a stitch through the edge. The stitch should be neat, but at the same time look a little sloppy (like on a real patch). Next, sew the button to the patch. The next step is sewing the two parts of the valentine together. Place both parts of the heart with the wrong sides together and sew them together with neat, even stitches across the edge (like a patch). Start the seam from the top, from the notch-check mark. This is also where we will sew in the ribbon. Having stitched along the entire edge of the valentine, insert the ribbon folded into a loop into the hole and sew it on with a loop stitch. Stuff the heart with padding polyester through the hole, close the seam and secure the thread. The second option is a valentine with a bow. Sew it in the same way as the first heart, but decorate it differently. Fold the wide ribbon into a bow and sew the intersection. Now attach the bow to the front of one of the heart parts, sew it on and decorate the middle with sequins or a button. Connect the parts, stuff the heart and sew on the ribbon-loop as in the first option. By the way, instead of a bow or a patch, you can use a voluminous applique made of the same material as the hearts. Just cut out multi-colored flowers and leaves and make a bouquet.
Heart made of cloth
You can also make very cute ones from fabricValentines. So if you know how to sew or are just friends with a needle and thread, then feel free to take on the production of such a gift. Make, for example, a heart-sachet or a heart-donut. In the first case, you need to take small pieces of cotton fabric and stuffing material. These can be dry fragrant herbs, aromatic salt or synthetic padding soaked in essential oil. Cut out two identical heart-shaped pieces from the fabric, fold them with the right sides together and sew them by hand or stitch them on a sewing machine, connecting the pieces along the edge of the future Valentine. Now sew a loop of ribbon or braid to one of the pieces, process (overcast) the heart and turn the heart inside out. Pull the loop out and pour the fragrant filling inside the heart. Sew up the hole through which the heart was stuffed. If desired, decorate the sachet with lace, beads, bows or buttons. To make a donut heart, cut out two large heart-shaped pieces from fabric and two smaller pieces. Now cut out the centers of the pieces too, so that you have four donut-shaped fabric pieces (with empty centers). Next, as in the first case, fold the two large pieces with the front sides facing each other, stitch along the inner and outer edges and turn inside out. Connect the two small pieces in the same way. Using a long knitting needle, stuff both parts of the valentine with padding polyester, pushing the stuffing inward and distributing it evenly. Close the seams on both pieces, insert the small heart inside (the hollow center) of the large one and sew it in two places - at the top and bottom. If the inner heart is much smaller than the outer one, make loops-crossbars from fabric or ribbons to connect it. Sew a loop-pendant to a large heart and decorate the valentine with any decorative elements: braid, lace, beads or buttons. If you take pastel-colored fabrics and make blanks in the form of elongated (long) hearts and stuff such a valentine pillow with padding polyester, you will get a heart in the style of a Tilda doll. You can also make a heart-shaped sofa cushion from wool, denim or tapestry. And if you sew a regular pin on one side of a very small heart made of fabric or felt, and decorate the other side or make embroidery on it, you will get a valentine brooch.
Heart made of paper
An original paper heart can be made intechnique of end-graining. Such a heart will become a creative crown for a fashionable topiary or a pendant for a mirror on a car windshield. How to make such a "shaggy" heart? For this you will need a foam blank, a glue gun and corrugated paper or multi-layer napkins. Cut squares from paper with a side of no more than one and a half centimeters. Cut a heart of the desired size from foam. Now the most interesting part. Take a regular pencil, put the end on the middle of the paper square and squeeze the paper, bending its edges upward. Roll the pencil, holding the paper pressed to the pencil and get a end-grain - a blank for end-graining. Drop glue into the center of the foam heart and put the end-grain on it. Press the pencil to the foam and take it out of the end-grain. Glue the next blanks around the first one, trying to leave as little empty space as possible between them. The next row of end pieces is also glued in a circle. In this way, we fill the entire surface of the foam heart on both sides and on the sides (if the foam is thick). For topiary, we put the heart on a stem-rod of a suitable size and attach it to a decorative pot filled with alabaster or regular plasticine. We decorate the pot. For a pendant heart, we attach a loop of braid or ribbon to the foam blank. By the way, if you apply the contours of some pattern to the foam and make end pieces from multi-colored paper, the valentine will turn out much more elegant and fun. You can also try to crochet hearts, mold them from salt dough, plastic or cold porcelain. A valentine can be made using the quilling technique, embroidered on cardboard with isonit, or cast a heart from paraffin and make an original candle. Do you want to learn how to make soap? Wonderful! Try making heart-shaped soap. Can you bake? Wonderful! A heart-shaped cake or cookies will also work great as a Valentine. In general, a heart-shaped gift made with your own hands is the best gift for your loved one. After all, it is made with love, which, as we know, cannot be bought for any amount of money. Love! And be loved! We recommend reading:
