DIY Valentine; Heart Pin + Gift Box

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner (tomorrow!), I thought it would be nice to share a quick and fun project that could be a nice parent-child activity…making a heart-shaped pin and with origami gift box!

I got the idea to make the pin when I was looking through some holiday apparel and found this home-made beauty (above) that I’ve had since I was very young.  Truth be told, I’m not usually into this sort of thing but I kind of dig it for its kitschyness. A short while ago I inherited a bunch of the plastic canvas needed to make this pin so I thought, “what the heck?” If you think it’s kitschy cute too read on for the how-to…

First the pin…
Materials:
Plastic canvas
Marker
Blunt-tip sewing needle
Scissors
Yarn (about 15 feet or so)
safety-pin

Directions:
Use a marker to draw a heart onto the plastic canvas and cut it out.

Measure out about 12 feet of yarn.

Here’s a quick way to do this:
I’m 5’1″ tall, which means my “wing span” is about 5 feet. So, if I pull the yarn between both hands with them stretched out twice plus once from one hand to my chest, that’s about 12.5 feet. It’s a great way to estimate yarn length. With 12 feet you’ll be able to make this project and not have to add more yarn part way through, but you also don’t want to have more than about 12 feet because it would be difficult to work with.

Thread the yarn through your needle and pull it so that both ends match up. You will be making this project with your yarn doubled like this.

Starting at one end of your heart, stitch in straight vertical rows. Instead of making a knot with your loose end, pull the tail across the back of the heart so that it will be hidden as you wrap the yarn over top of it. Try to keep the yarn from twisting as you sew.

Once you’ve gone all the way across the heart like this, start sewing around the edges.

Weave the end of the tail into the back threads and snip the excess yarn. Open your safety-pin and insert the back portion through the back threads to hold it.

Here’s the front of the finished project! Leave it as-is or embellish it with googly eyes, embroidery thread, beads, whatever!


I think the green heart will be nice for St. Patrick’s day and the black one could be fun to give to someone who might be a bit bitter about “the Hallmark holiday.”

Now, if you’d like to give these little cuties away tomorrow (and who wouldn’t), you might want to make a gift box.

I made these boxes using junk mail! It’s really simple. I learned how from an Etsy video a few years ago. Click here for the easy to follow how-to. To make sure that your box is big enough for your pin, you’ll need two squares of heavy paper that measures about 21cm square.

Happy crafting and thank you for stopping by!

For updates on future tutorials, like zween on Facebook!