My favourite Valentine's Day themed crafts

Over the years I've shared lots of Valentine's Day crafts on the blog, and I thought I'd share a little roundup of some of my favourites! Just click the link for tutorials and more instructions.

A simple colourful felt heart garland - a great way to use up scraps of coloured felt, and it's really quick and easy to put together using a sewing machine.

Some tiny mini Hama bead hearts - mini Hama beads are perfect for delicate embellishments and these mini Hama bead hearts can be used on cards or Valentine's Day decorations or turned into magnets or pin badges.

A multi-coloured mini Hama bead heart picture - again using mini Hama beads in a variety of colours, this detailed heart design makes a lovely wall hanging or coaster.

A simple felt Valentine's Day gift bag - these mini felt bags are perfect for gifting some Valentine's Day treats.

A Valentine's Day Hama bead heart hanging decoration - one of my first Hama bead crafts! I really enjoyed coming up with different designs for the hearts and it makes a lovely Valentine's Day decoration.

A simple Valentine's Day craft for toddlers, painted toilet roll tube gift boxes - back to the very early days of my blog, but this craft is still one of my favourites! I had a lovely time making these toilet roll tube gift boxes with my toddlers.

If you are looking for more simple Valentine's Day crafts then you might enjoy these Hama bead crafts for Valentine's Day

Quick mini felt hearts for Valentine's Day

I'm busy working my way through my felt stash, and so I'm always looking for crafting opportunities to make a dent, no matter how small!

This week I've been making some little felt hearts for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure how to use them yet, I thought I might hang them one above the other for a Valentine's Day hanging, or just display them in a little bowl that I have on the sideboard which I like to fill with some kind of seasonal decoration

I made myself two paper heart templates, a larger one and a smaller one, and cut out lots of hearts. 

Then I sewed a small button into the centre of each small heart. I also have a sizeable button stash! After sewing the smaller heart onto the larger one I used blanket stitch to sew two sides together and added a small amount of stuffing. I like to use tiny spare felt scraps for stuffing as it's a great way to make sure that nothing is wasted. 

I've only made a few felt hearts so far but they were so quick and easy to make that I'm tempted to sew up a few more! My red felt is getting low so I might try out a few different colours too.

If you are looking for a similar project to use up your colourful felt scraps then why not try this simple felt heart garland? It is very quick and easy to make and it makes a room look so cheerful.

Simple Hama bead heart coaster

The children might be growing up, but I still have plenty of Hama beads in the house! I was looking through the stash the other day and noticed that I had an abundance of red, white and pink beads and so I decided to make a simple Valentine's Day craft. 

The design for this Valentine's Day Hama bead coaster is based on my colourful mini Hama bead heart picture which lives above my desk. I used four of the heart squares to make the coaster, along with a single line of beads for the border.

The coaster is just the right size to sit under a mug for my morning cup of tea. It also makes a nice Valentine's Day decoration by itself, I think this heart design is simple but really effective.

I have plenty of Hama bead project ideas on my blog. If you are looking for more Valentine's Day Hama bead crafts then you might like this post:

Hama bead crafts for Valentine's Day

Hama bead heart bunting decoration

A few years ago I made a selection of Hama bead hearts and put them together to create a Hama bead heart hanging decoration. This year I decided that my Valentine's Day decor was in need of an update, and so I reused some of these Hama bead hearts, along with a few new ones, to create some simple Hama bead bunting that I can use to decorate our mantelpiece.

These Hama bead hearts are made using the small Hama bead heart board (affiliate link). The board doesn't use too many beads and can be used for both simple and more complex designs. It's a great activity for young children to help improve fine motor skills and let them come up with their own imaginative designs. I made my heart designs using pink and white beads, red beads would also work well.

I find that the best value way to buy Hama beads is to buy a large tub of mixed Hama beads (affiliate link) and along with other colours this tub contains the pink and white beads that I have used. But if you only want beads in certain colours you can also buy bags of colours individually. 

I ironed the designs on both sides so that they were firmly fused together but still had open holes in the beads.

Related post - Ironing tips for Hama beads

Then I looked through the designs and came up with a layout that I thought would work well with a balance of colours and shapes.

I used some narrow red ribbon (affiliate link) to join the hearts together. I used a sharp needle to thread the ribbon through the top of the heart in two places. I had tried to leave the holes as large as possible while ironing, but I've found that even if the hole is closed on one side the beads are usually soft enough that you can push a needle through them.

On my mantelpiece I have some small Command hooks (affiliate link) fixed up permanently which I use to hang fairy lights and bunting throughout the year. All I needed to do was to make a small knot in the end of the ribbon and hook it through to display the bunting.

I love the way that I've been able to re-purpose my Valentine's Day themed Hama bead hearts and make something pretty to gaze at while I'm sitting in the living room!

If you liked this Hama bead craft, you might also be interested in my other Hama bead crafts for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day gift boxes and bags you can make

If you are planning to give a small gift to your Valentine this Valentine's Day, I have some ideas for sweet little things that you can make to help your gift really stand out! These boxes and bags are perfect for holding sweets, chocolates or other trinkets. Click the links to find the full details and tutorials for the crafts.

Valentine's Day cardboard tube gift boxes

These simple gift boxes are made from a cardboard tube painted red and decorated with googly eyes along with scraps of coloured paper and card. With a foot shaped base glued to the bottom and stuffed with shredded paper, they can be used to hold sweets and chocolates.

Valentine's Day simple felt gift bags

These simple felt gift bags make a great first sewing project for little ones as they are so easy to make. You just need a strip of felt, folded over and sewn up the sides, with some matching ribbon to tie. This gift bag is great for larger items, and can be made in different sizes to match the gift that you want to include.

Simple foam sheet Valentine's Day gift tubes

These gift tubes are made using craft foam and are very easy to make as they are just held together using staples. Then can be decorated with cut out paper, card and heart embellishments.

I hope that you've found some inspiration for your Valentine's Day gifts this year!

If you enjoy crafting with Hama beads, you might also like this round up of ideas for different Valentine's Day Hama bead projects.

Valentine's Day crafts for toddlers

Over the years I've shared many Valentine's Day craft posts on the blog, and although my children are now getting a bit too old to indulge me with some seasonal crafting, I'm still proud of the crafts that we've worked on over the years. So with Valentine's Day approaching once again I thought I'd share some of the toddler and pre-schooler Valentine's Day crafts that we enjoyed doing together.

Stock up on red paint and cardboard, then click on the links below to find the details of each craft!

Valentine's Day toilet roll tube gift boxes

These simple gift boxes are so easy to make. All you need is a selection of cardboard tubes which you need to paint bright red or pink, then cut heart shaped pieces of red card to form the base. Glue on googly eyes and scraps of pink and red tissue paper and card. I also used a heart punch to make simple heart shapes. Stuff with shredded paper and fill with small sweets and chocolates.

Tissue paper Valentine's Day photo frames

These photo frames are fun for even the youngest children to make. Cut out the shape from thick cardboard, then coat in glue and stick down bits of torn coloured tissue paper. You can then embellish with buttons, beads or paper cut outs.

Valentine's Day keepsake bookmarks

To make these sturdy bookmarks all you need is a strip of coloured cardboard and some heart cutouts from paper, I used a heart punch. They are laminated and then a matching ribbon is threaded through the hole at the bottom. We wrote personalised messages on the back and gave them as gifts, and although we made them a couple of years ago they are still going strong!

Heart sun catchers

These sun catchers can even be made by very young children. They are made using clear sticky backed plastic, which is really easy for young toddlers to use in crafts as there is no mess with glue. They just need to fill the outline with pieces of torn coloured tissue paper, then you can apply another piece of the clear plastic to make a neat finish.

Valentine's themed jewellery box

Young children love having little boxes that they can use to store their precious bits and pieces! My daughter and I decorated this box with a Valentine's Day theme by painting it red and then adding heart themed stickers and embellishments. It's still in use in her room today!

Hama bead heart bunting

These Hama bead hearts are really simple to make using the small Hama bead heart pegboard, and they make a lovely set of bunting when strung together on some narrow ribbon.

I hope that you found something to keep you and your toddler busy!

If you have slightly older children that enjoy using Hama beads, you might also like my round up of Valentine's Day themed Hama bead crafts. 

Mini Hama bead heart pin badges tutorial

This post contains Amazon affiliate links

A little while ago I made some mini Hama bead hearts using tiny mini Hama beads, and this week I finally decided what to use them for - some heart pin badges!

Here's how I made them:

To make the mini Hama bead hearts

Mini Hama beads are tiny, and can be a bit daunting to work with at first. I used the beads in a selection of red and pinks on the square board as below and placed them on the board using tweezers. You can see a video of my technique below.

When ironing the beads you need to be very careful as they don't require as much ironing as the larger beads, just a few seconds on each side.

Here's a video showing how they were made:

To assemble the badges

To make the badges you will need some pin badge backing pieces. They come in two parts - a pin which is affixed to the back of the heart, and a backing piece which clips on when you are ready to wear or display the badge.

You need to use a strong glue to fix the backing pins to the Hama bead hearts, any kind of strong superglue will work well. Hama beads can sometimes be tricky to glue as the plastic they are made from can be a little soft, but the smaller beads seem to be firmer once ironed and stick better.

Depending on the glue that you use you may need to wait for it to dry, and then your pins are ready to wear!

These little badges would make a lovely Valentine's gift for children to give out to their friends. And now I've discovered how easy these pin badge backs are to use I'm thinking of lots of other crafts that I can use them for!

I've used Hama beads to make lots of other Valentine's Day themed crafts, and you can find them all here - Hama bead crafts for Valentine's Day.

They include:

Hama bead heart hanging decoration
Hama bead heart spinning decoration
Hama bead heart photo frames
Mini Hama bead heart pins
Mini Hama bead hearts

Paper cut heart card for Valentine's Day

This paper cut Valentine's card was very simple to make, and it can be used to decorate a card or to make a decoration for your home.

You need:

A selection of pieces of pink or red card
A plain piece of cardboard for the background of the card
Cutting mat and craft knife
Bostik Micro Dots
Bostik Foam Pads (small)

Instructions:

First you need to come up with a design for your heart paper cutting. There is plenty of inspiration online, and if you don't feel confident enough to draw your own design you can find plenty of free templates or ones to purchase that you can cut yourself.

If you are coming up with your own design, make sure that you are very clear which areas need to be cut, and leave plenty of space around the edges. If you are new to paper cutting keep it simple to start with. I came up with a freehand design featuring the word Love and a few smaller motifs, and I chose a piece of pink cardboard to cut the design.

I copied the design to my pink card using a pencil. I made sure that I kept the pencil marks light as I'll be rubbing them out when the heart is cut. You can also draw your design on to what will be the reverse of your cut out, but if you are including lettering remember that this will need to be drawn in reverse.

Then cut the design using a cutting mat and small craft knife. It's important to work slowly and carefully on a small area at a time, but don't be afraid to make changes as you go along if you can see ways to make the design balance better. The design will become more delicate as the card is removed, so it is best to start with the smaller sections, like the centres of the letters, and leave the larger areas until last.

Next use an eraser to rub out any visible pencil marks. Work very carefully so as not to pull on the delicate areas of the design.

The paper cut heart is adhered to a piece of card using Bostik Micro Dots. This is a sheet of tiny sticky dots that you press against the item that you want to stick. The dots attach themselves to your item allowing you to stick it where it needs to go. They are perfect for detailed items like this paper cut, as they will coat it evenly with adhesive and you don't need to worry about any glue showing from the front. Just press the paper cut against the sticky sheet then position in place on the card.

Finally cut out some smaller decorative hearts from a contrasting piece of card. I used a heart punch, but you can cut the hearts freehand if you don't have one. I used two different colours of card to make four smaller hearts.

The hearts are stuck to the card using Bostik Foam Pads. I used the small pads which are 5mm by 5mm in size. They are easy to apply and are great for giving some depth to a project.

Your card is finished! It's ready to send to a loved one, or just to keep on display.

This is a collaborative post in association with Bostik