Need a quick and easy, super simple homemade Valentine’s Day gift for your favorite valentine?
This mini heart bunting is a low-key gift, since it’s nice and small. Big hearts are corny, but small hearts are cute! Small also means that you can upcycle some teeny scraps, which is always an eco-friendly bonus for any project. The wool felt scraps that I used to make these little buntings are so small that I’d honestly have thrown them away, nearly guilt-free, if I hadn’t thought up this use for them.
Cutting the hearts from felt means that you can choose your brand of eco-friendliness. Both wool felt and Eco-fi recycled polyester felt work well here, although if you do craft with animal materials, I think the weight and texture of wool felt is superior here. I think Eco-fi felt has good drape for those occasions when I sew it into a garment, but wool felt has better body to stand alone.
Because felt comes in every color that is, don’t feel like you have to confine your mini bunting to strictly the boring Valentine’s Day colors. I did make one of my heart buntings in the traditional red and white, but that’s only because it’s also my kid’s school colors. So now she’s got a cute little dorm room decoration that works year-round! I made my other kid’s bunting a little more reflective of her personal style, which she will tell you is NOT emo but… it’s totally emo. Ahem. And honestly, this bunting might end up having too much non-black in it for her taste…
Hot glue means that this bunting comes together super quickly. So I feel completely justified in presenting you with this project on the very eve of Valentine’s Day. Even procrastinators can give handmade gifts when the gifts are this easy to make! In this case, a different glue offers no advantages, so you can craft away quickly and easily!
Here’s what you need to make your own mini felt heart bunting:
- felt. Upcycle all the scrippiest scraps you can find! Any medium weight fabric that’s not prone to fraying can also work here. If a fabric is prone to fraying but you want to use it anyway, just hit it with a little Fray Check or run a thin line of school glue around the edges of each finished heart. That way, you can experiment with hearts made from denim, corduroy, burlap, or all kinds of other interesting fabrics.
- heart template. Trace or freehand a small-ish heart. My template is about 1.5″, and I punched it from cereal box cardboard (the last scraps of THIS cereal box cardboard, in fact!). Hearts of varying sizes would also look cute! If you don’t want to freehand and don’t own a punch, just Google Image something and print it or trace it off your computer screen.
- hot glue. You could probably get away with using any kind of glue for this project. But hot glue will have your entire project finished within minutes. Low-temp hot glue guns make this project friendly for even younger kids.
- baker’s twine. Baker’s twine is a great weight for this mini bunting. If you don’t have it, substitute any other kind of twine–I think hemp would look especially nice! I don’t recommend yarn or embroidery floss, although if I had to choose between them I’d go with embroidery floss. Fishing line could also look pretty cool!
Step 1: Cut felt hearts.
You’ll need two identical hearts for every heart in your bunting, one front and one back. Felt isn’t always a friendly fabric to cut. So use your sharpest pair of fabric scissors–you know, the special pair that you’re hiding from the rest of the family!
Eyeball how many felt hearts you think you’ll need for your bunting. I thought my bunting looked cutest with about a centimeter between hearts, but really it’s dealer’s choice! I overestimated by a couple of hearts. So I guess I’ve got something to squirrel away for my next cardmaking project.
Step 2: Glue the hearts to the twine.
Sit down with a podcast, but don’t get too comfy, because this final step only takes a few minutes! It’s barely worth heating up the hot glue gun for, so consider gluing several buntings at once.
Glue each heart to the twine, then glue another heart over it, sandwiching the twine between the two. Press the heart flat, then move onto the next!
Try to be very precise, both with carefully lining up the two hearts and with avoiding glue seepage. But if you have a clumsy moment, both types of bobble are easy to fix.
This little heart bunting makes a sweet gift. And, it’s small enough to tuck into a Valentine’s Day card or a letter to your favorite college student. Bonus points if that letter includes ALL the latest family gossip!
