Emily Neuburger, MAT, MS, LMHC

Sew-A-Heart Valentine Tutorial

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I have hearts and bright colors on my mind.  Do you?
Sew and give. Thread and sit by the fire.  Bring them in the car or on the train.
Have children draw their own shapes (abstract designs are wonderful!) or draw some for them.
You do some, they do some.   You know how it goes.

This is the kind of activity where everyone participates at their own pace and speed.  

I  love how the colorful yarn is so bright against the humble cereal box. Its almost like a bit of cozy, cheer threaded through a regular, everyday moment.  

Materials:
cereal box panels
yarn
tape
scissors
pencil
1/8 inch hole punch
awl (or nail)
How To:
1. Cut cereal box panels into small squares.
2. Use your pencil to draw a simple shape onto the plain, brown side of the square.
3. Use a 1/8 inch hole punch to punch holes on the pencil line, leaving about 1/4 of an inch in between each hole.
4. Since there will be some places on the shape where the hole punch won’t reach, use the awl (or a nail) to fill in the blanks.
5. Find an extra long piece of yarn (36″ should be more than enough).
6. Put some tape around the end of the yarn and trim with scissors in order to have a nice pointy tip to thread the holes with.
7. Use a backstitch to sew around the perimeter of your design.  This will create an end-to-end stitch without any gaps.   Coming from the back, thread the tip of yarn through one hole and then through the one next to it, so that is now poking out the back.  Bring the tip of the yarn back through the original hole, so it is now in the front of the card.  This will create a nice, solid first stitch. Thread the tip through to the next empty hole and then back through the one prior.  Keep doing this the whole way around.
8. Once you complete your last stitch and the two ends of yarn are in the back of the card, tie them off with three, tight knots. 
Other design ideas:  flowers, birds, lips, candy, sunshine, a tree.  Pitch in with more ideas!
S P R E A D    S O M E    L O V E 
xo emily

by Filed Under: Crafts

Comments

  9. I told my eleven yr old about this project and he stared at me like I was crazy then said, ‘that’s so boring.’ But about twenty minutes in, he grabbed a piece of box and asked me how to start his own. I had to supress my glee and act cool, I helped him make the holes and listened as he described how horrible his would be (horrible is awesome in preteen boy language). He made a creeper face (Minecraft thing) and was pretty engrossed in it for almost an hour, so cool. Thanks for the easy craft!
    http://booksmakemehungry.blogspot.com/

  12. Thanks for the clever idea!!! These will be great for the nursing home residents with a sweet saying in the middle. Love it!

  14. Love these. Think I will have the daycare kids do this on the 14th to give to their parents! Thanks for sharing.

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