How To: Cross Stitch Heart Brooch

As promised, here's another Valentine-themed project :)

Today's tutorial is for a cute felt heart brooch decorated with little cross stitches.

These brooches are quite a quick sewing project, and would make sweet Valentine's day gifts for friends (especially ones who like to sew!), or favours for your bridesmaids or flowergirls... or a cute way to say "I love you" to your mum on Mother's day (my mum has already snaffled this one to wear on her jacket).

To make your heart brooch you will need...

White felt and red felt (I used the "ruby red" wool blend felt I sell in my shops)
Matching red and white sewing thread
Red embroidery thread / floss
A brooch clasp (or a safety pin and an extra small rectangle of red felt)
An embroidery hoop
Optional: a piece of greaseproof/baking paper

1) Stretch a piece of white felt in an embroidery hoop to give you a nice flat surface to stitch onto.

2) Use red embroidery thread / floss to stitch the simple design of Xs as pictured. I stitched mine freehand, making small neat crosses and stitching row by row to keep the design as even as possible. The smaller/larger your Xs, the smaller/larger your finished brooch will be. I used the large heart motif from my Will & Kate sampler, but for a different look you could stitch the smaller heart if you prefer.

If you're not confident about stitching freehand, you can draw the heart design neatly onto a piece of semi-transparent baking/greaseproof paper, tack the paper in place on the white felt with large stitches, then follow your drawing as you stitch (stitching through the paper and the felt). When you've finished stitching, remove the tacking threads then carefully tear away the paper, using a pin to remove any small or fiddly pieces.

Make sure that all your Xs are sewn the same way - e.g. on my brooch, the top stitch of each X is the line going from the top left to the bottom right. 

3) Remove the white felt from the hoop, then cut around your stitched heart leaving a border of white felt around the Xs:

4) Place the white heart onto a piece of red felt, and sew it in position using running stitch and white thread. Then trim away the excess red felt to create a red border around the white heart.

5) Use the red heart as a template to cut another matching piece of red felt - this will be the back of your brooch. Turn the backing piece over and sew a brooch clasp or safety pin onto it (or a hairclip if you prefer) using a double thickness of red sewing thread. Visit this tutorial on making felt brooches for tips on how to secure your safety pin neatly.

6) Place the front and back of the brooch together, and sew around the edge with running stitch in more red thread. Sew as flush to the white heart as you can, and then finish your stitching neatly at the back.

I stitched my brooch in "classic" red and white, but I think it would also look very cute in pretty shades of pink and purple, or with a bright colour (maybe turquoise?) instead of the white felt.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many brooches as you like to give as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow 1 or 2 photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Want to make more felt heart brooches? Try this tutorial from my archives.

A Sneak Peek + A Special Offer

Today there was just enough sunshine to finish and photograph a couple more projects that I should (hopefully) have ready to share with you later this week.

Here's a sneak peek at one of them - when I was framing it in the mini embroidery hoop, I needed something to help hold all the felt in place while the glue dried and this little jar of mustard was the perfect size:

I thought you might also like to know that there's a special offer running in my Etsy shop this week - buy three things from my sale section and get the cheapest item free! You get a bargain, I get more room in my shop for exciting new things... it's win win :)

You can either buy three things and I'll refund the price of the cheapest item, or buy two and leave me a note during checkout to say which listing you'd like as your third item. The offer ends at midnight UK time this Saturday (4th Feb) and only applies to items marked on sale in my Etsy shop. Click here to check out all the goodies in my Etsy sale section.

DIY Mini Envelope Valentine

This is a very simple project but I rather like it! It's a similar idea to the Valentine's garland I posted yesterday...

... a Valentine's Day card with a little semi-transparent envelope on the front, into which you can tuck a folded love letter, or the tickets you've bought to a concert/play/exhibition/etc for a romantic Valentine's surprise.

You could also make one for your anniversary, or use it as a more personal way to present a gift card you've bought a couple as a wedding gift. 


1. Cut out a red heart from felt, paper or card using the heart template from this tutorial.

2. Stick the heart onto the front of a mini glassine envelope using double-sided tape. Make sure you leave enough room at the top of the envelope to fold it over.

If you can't get hold of any glassine envelopes, you could make your own see-through envelope using tracing paper. Search online for an envelope template you like, cut and fold the tracing paper to form the envelope and stick it together with double-sided tape.

3. Insert the love letter / tickets / gift card / etc into the envelope.

If you don't want to fold important tickets to fit the envelope (or, like me, you're a bit fussy and don't like how the colour of them clashes with the rest of the card) use a photocopier or a scanner to make a black and white copy of the ticket and add that to the envelope instead.

4. Fold over the top of the envelope, and position it roughly in the centre of your blank card - I used bright red card, but white would also look great and make the red heart stand out even more. Then stick the envelope in position with a piece of patterned washi tape (Japanese masking tape), torn at each end.

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!

DIY Valentine Love Notes Garland

Today's tutorial is a Valentine's garland, made with mini envelopes.

It's a variation on the advent garland I made a couple of years ago...

... but instead of having an envelope for each day leading up until Christmas, there's an envelope for the first 14 days of February, each one with a little love note or other special something tucked inside.

To make the garland, you will need:

- 14 mini envelopes
- washi tape (Japanese masking tape) & pretty doilies, or patterned paper, cute stickers, etc, basically anything you fancy using to decorate the envelopes
- red felt and the heart template from this tutorial
- glue and double-sided tape for securing all your decorative details in place
- scissors and a pen (I used one with red ink)
- mini pegs and a length of twine, ribbon or cord for displaying the envelopes as a garland

1) Cut out 14 hearts from red felt 

2) Decorate the front of each envelope with washi tape, doilies or other pretty things. 

I cut strips of tape that were slightly longer than the envelope, then turned the envelope over and trimmed the excess tape with scissors.

To stick the doilies, I placed the doily face down on a piece of scrap paper and carefully dabbed it with a glue stick, covering only the area I'd need with glue. I then carefully peeled the doily from the paper, lightly positioned it on the envelope and pressed down to secure it in place.

3) Then use double-sided tape to stick a felt heart in the centre of each envelope, and write the dates Feb 1st to Feb 14th (or just the numbers 1 - 14) on the envelopes. 

4) Write a little love note or choose other special bits and pieces to tuck in each envelope - a copy of a special photo, maybe, or little gifts... or you could write a longer love letter and cut it into 14 pieces, so it can be assembled piece by piece over the 14 days ... or, if you're planning a special evening or trip for Valentine's Day you could put in 13 clues to what you're doing / where you're going, and then on Valentine's Day itself write a note revealing your plans


5) Finally, use the mini pegs and twine / cord to display the garland. 

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!

Like doilies? Why not decorate your gifts with doilies, or use a whole pack to make a pretty doily curtain to add to your spring decor?.

DIY "Owl Always Love You" Valentine's Day Card

I've been working on a few Valentine-themed projects this week, and will be posting them gradually over the next week or so. I hope you'll enjoy them! :)

First up, a cute card for Valentine's day (or your anniversary), featuring two owls, a heart, and a very silly pun...

You can make this with felt, like I did, or use coloured paper if you prefer. The owls are made using the templates from my owl brooch tutorial, then I just drew a heart the size I needed to fit in the gap, cut it out, and used that as the heart template when cutting out my felt. 

If you're using paper, turn your templates over and draw around them onto the back of your chosen paper with a sharp pencil, then when you turn the cut out shapes over all your pencil lines will be hidden. 

Position the pieces on the card one by one and carefully glue them in place with a glue stick. You can use goggly eyes (glue these in place with a small dab of craft glue) or cut out white paper circles and draw the pupils on with black marker / felt tip pen (perhaps drawing them slightly off-centre to make it look like the owls are looking at each other). 

If you're using felt, pin or hold the templates in place to cut out all the pieces. You could sew the wings, beaks and eyes in position (as seen in steps 3 + 4 of the brooch tutorial, sewing a small piece of felt or a black bead for each pupil), or just use craft glue to attach the wings and beak and pairs of goggly eyes. 

Position the owls and the heart onto the card how you want them, and then stick them in place with small pieces of double sided tape - craft glue would also work, but it can distort the card slightly.

Finally, write "owl always love you" or your own choice of message underneath the owls in your best handwriting. You may find it helpful to write it in pencil first to help you get the words centred nicely, then just erase the pencil marks once the ink has completely dried. If you've used paper for your owls you could also draw a few extra details on them if you wanted, like feathers on their bellies or wings. 

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!

Love owls? Check out my plush owl tutorial. 

Rainbow Ribbon

Check out the yummy, colourful ribbons that arrived yesterday!

I'll mostly be using them to tie the colour-themed felt bundles I sell in my shops, but they'll be a useful addition to my supplies stash too.

It was quite hard to resist the urge to buy a reel of every colour available, but I was strong :)

Red and Blue

A quick snap of some work in progress this week...

 
... lots of red poppies which will become brooches and headbands.

I love those blue Dorcas pin tins. I've got two of them, this one was a hand-me-down from my mother and the other (which is the same design, just larger) was my grandmother's. Very special things.

Another Old Project

You've probably noticed a bit of an "old works-in-progress" theme developing on my blog this month...

I've been sorting through lots of boxes over the past few weeks - decluttering a bit, re-organising all my crafty stuff so I can store it neatly in my new studio, and taking a long hard look at neglected old projects to work out how best to breathe new crafty life into them.

These stripey fabric panels were in the same under-the-spare-bed suitcase as the half-finished quilt.

I made them when I was about 18 I think, and they may have been planned as cushions or perhaps just textile-y bits of art to decorate my room, who knows? I remember making them, but not what I was actually making them for!

There's three of them - a large blue one (about 56cm / 22inches wide) and two smaller white and pink ones (33cm / 13 inches wide). Each piece is a plain bit of fabric, decorated with strips of fabric, ribbons, trimmings, beads, buttons, pieces of felt and other crafty stuff, all hand stitched in place to form a stripe-y pattern.

The blue and white one also includes stripes made from bubble-wrap and a piece of j-cloth, which I think my 18 year old self probably thought was really really cool. 

I probably pulled the same face looking at those particular sections as my mother no doubt did all those years ago when I waved it at her enthusiastically. Ah, I'm getting so old!

As with the old quilt, I have a whole bundle of mixed emotions about these and am very unsure about what (if anything) I should do with them. I'm going to put them aside and think about it for a while, but any suggestions would be very welcome :)

Simple Squares

I'm still spending a lot of my evenings watching rubbish telly & doing some knitting.

I've mainly been knitting blanket squares in basic garter stitch which is really not the world's most fascinating craft project but totally perfect for those times when you just need to switch your brain off for a few hours after work and totally relax.

I've been knitting my daily sky blanket square...

... and also working on a knitting project that has been "in progress" for at least 10 years. 

I knitted a couple of blankets many years ago and I'm not sure if I knitted too many squares, or had decided to start a third blanket, or what other mysterious plan was going through my head, but basically I ended up with a few dozen squares which became another one of those "random craft projects that Laura has had stashed under her bed since she was a teenager". 

Last year I started knitting up all the random balls of double-knit yarn in my stash into squares to match the old ones. The general plan is to use up the random yarn, and then buy a few extra balls in coordinating colours, and (eventually) end up with a finished blanket or two. 

Most of the squares are the same size, and will become one blanket...

... but there are also a few smaller ones knitted from slightly lighter weight yarn, which will be another blanket (which seems destined to be quite bright and cheerful based on the colours knitted up thus far!)...

... and a few much larger ones which my teenage self seems to have knitted on larger needles to the rest of the squares (I'd like to give myself the benefit of the doubt and say this was deliberate but it probably wasn't). I did briefly contemplate knitting three blankets but then I thought that might drive me a bit insane, so instead I'll be unravelling these few larger squares and re-knitting them on smaller needles:

Here's a snap of the crate in which I'm keeping the in-progress squares and soon-to-be-knitted balls of yarn:

The small squares in the bag are tiny moss stitch squares I'm knitting with all the leftover bits of yarn that are too small to be knitted into the larger squares. I don't know what I'm going to use them all for, but waste not want not, right?

Tax Time

This week has mostly been filled with spreadsheets as I've been finishing my accounts. So boring!

My brain feels a little broken now, but normal crafty service should be resumed shortly :)

In the meantime, here's a quick snap of my assistant "helping" me print out some paperwork...