Made with Heart

Is there anything better in this world than a darling, simple, dirt cheap craft? Let me paint a picture for you... $4... that's it. Ok, maybe more like $14-$20 if this is your first time ever using a glue gun but work with me here.

I had seen some very cute Valentine garlands all over Instagram and I wanted one with all my heart.... ha, I see what I did there! 😍

So I did some thinking, looked around at what I had around the house, and set off to create one of my FAVORITE diys to this day.

Materials:

- Hot glue gun - Glue Sticks - Felt (amount depends on preference) - Yarn/String - Paper - Marker

- Scissors - An old pillow (not feather) you can also use cotton balls

So if this is your first time ever crafting in your entire life, you may need to spend $20 on all of those materials. If you've been around the block a time or two (like me) I spent $4 on the 4 colors of felt I wanted, and I had everything else already.

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Step 1:

A more robust heart works best for stuffing

Take your paper and draw out the size/shape of heart you want. You will be stuffing them so I recommend more robust instead of angular like I do my signatures. I used a thick construction paper because I knew I would be tracing it on the felt multiple times and I didn't want the paper to lose it's shape. If you're not as skilled in the free hand you can find stencils at any craft store (make sure to take advantage of the weekly sales)

(I do not get any compensation for the links I provide)

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Step 2:

Cut out your heart... the paper one of course.. you never know with the internet.. We don't need an episode of Grey's Anatomy.

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Step 3:

I cut in the middle of my traced line. I like the way it looks at the end with the slightest black popping out.

Trace the heart on your felt. Two hearts will become one on the garland.

There's a deeper meaning in there somewhere

I wanted alternating colors on my garland so I cut 16 hearts, 4 in each color. When you traced your hearts you probably have a thick line from your marker. Instead of cutting the marked felt totally off I cut my hearts out in the center of the outline

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Step 4:

Heat up your hot glue gun and run a thin line of hot glue on the arches of the heart. If you kept some of your traced lines on the felt, make sure you are adding the glue on that side. When adding the glue only go as far down the sides as your V goes down in the center. Place a second piece of felt matching up the edges with the tracings facing each other. While the hot glue is still warm, knead the pieces together so they match up perfectly. If your cutting was a little wonky, doing this will help create a pocket for your stuffing later.

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Step 5:

Once the last step has dried (about 15 seconds) Figure out how you want your spacing on the garland. I spaced my hearts about 8 inches apart and then went back and added smaller hearts between each of the larger ones. Fold the top piece of your heart up to free up the bottom piece for you to run your hot glue along the inside of one edge of the heart.

Before you fold the top piece down, place your string at the base of the portion you glued in step 4. This is the sweet spot to guarantee that your hearts do not flip upside down when you hang your garland.

Note, you are only gluing one side right now, the other side is open for you to add your stuffing. Knead the edge together as you did in Step 4. Right now you should have

two pieces of hearts glued together at the arches and the side, with string running through it.

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Step 6:

Take out a good tuft of stuffing out of an old pillow. We happened to have deep cleaned our belongings and had a few flat pillows were were going to toss and my cartoon light bulb started strobe lighting. This tuft of stuffing should look twice as big as the heart it is going into. It looks impossible but I promise it isn't. Now here is where the magic happens.

Hold the heart with the opening up and keep the string on the side facing you it will work as a sort of retractor for the heart...

Did I just use something from Grey's Anatomy? Hello Derek Shepherd 😍

This is why we glue the arches first, start adding your stuffing into the arches and filling out the heart, once you have your desired buoyancy (?applicable?) you're ready to close.. seriously I feel like we're doing open heart surgery, just call me Dr. Yang. 😷

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Step 7:

Your 2/3 of your heart is glued, your heart is stuffed, your string is retracting, now close. It's as simple as adding a thin line of glue on the inside of one of the pieces, place your string on the flush against the edge already dried from step 4 and kneading the sides together as you did before. Depending on how much stuffing you jammed in there, you will want to hold this side until it is fully dried other wise you will be repeating this step.

VOILA one done!

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As I said I made 8 large hearts and 7 small ones. You can do as few or as many as you'd like. The best part is, picture this with little felt clovers for St. Patricks, or Pumpkins/Leaves in the Fall, you can mix and match shapes, add textures, the world is your oyster!

If you try this out please tag me on Instagram @madewithmichaela I would love to see how yours turned out!

💋 MICHAELA