Last Minute Valentine's Day Projects

Need some ideas for Valentine's Day, but short on time?  I hear ya!  I've rounded up some of my past holiday creations that are fun and, most importantly, fairly easy to put together.

 Make some of my sweet Edible Love Notes:

Free Pattern for my Lovebirds Valentine Felt Treat Bag:

Make a heart shaped box with Duck Tape:

Create a Valentine's light in no time with my Conversation Heart Lamp how-to:

Do some quick-make wearables like my Love My Mom Heat Transfer Shirt Tutorial:

Or my Love You Gnome Matter What HTV Transfer Shirt Tutorial:

Or the pretty (and simple) Valentine's Day Hair Jewelry:

And, of you've got a little extra time, make a Hearts Aflutter Faux Leather Tote Bag:

❤️ Happy Valentine's Day! ❤️

Easy Love My Mom Valentine's Day Heat Transfer Shirts

Need a last minute idea for Valentine's Day?  How about this cute little heat transfer to make a holiday shirt or bag?  I've got you covered with this holiday heat transfer project.  It even shows Mom some extra ❤️:

I literally just dreamed it up and made it yesterday, so that's why it's pretty simple.  Sometimes projects need to be quick & easy so you can enjoy the actual occasion rather than be caught up in the project making part.  It occurred to me around mid-day that this Valentine's Day will be the first one for my little nephew. I wanted to send him a little something to celebrate that, but  obviously it being just days away I needed to hurry.  And use what I happened to have on hand in the house.  No challenges, right?  LOL.  That's how I tend to roll....

Thankfully I had some sheets of red heat transfer vinyl left from some previous Christmas projects and a blank 18 month sized t-shirt I never got around to embellishing for my almost 3yr old (luckily said nephew is big for his age).  Added bonus was that I found I had a blank 2T long sleeved tee in my stash too and my little guy is on the small side, so I was able to make one for him too!

 

 These worked out ideally.  I'm a big fan of "holiday" themed wearables that you can still wear well after the actual day is over and these definitely tick that box too.  YAY!!!

 Now, how to make them

Materials:

- Heat transfer vinyl

- Shirt, bag or other fabric item (unwashed)

- Cutting machine (I used my 6yr old Cricut Explore)

- Cricut Easy Press or Iron

- My FREE Mom Heart design below

 

 Here's my FREE design for the I Love Mom Heart.  Just right click to save the jpeg.  You could use it as a graphic or printable too;)

Using Cricut Design Space I turned my design into a cut file (making cut lines around the Mom part as well as the outer edges) and sized it to fit baby/toddler sized shirts (about 4 inches high by 6.5 inches wide).  Then mirrored it before cutting:

 

 It took just seconds to cut them both out:

Weeding out just the Mom part - remembering to leave the center of the "O":

Press time!!  It's key to check the fabric composition to make sure you get the settings right.  And don't wash the shirts first - having that factory sizing in them helps htv adhere better.  These were both cotton poly blends and this was basic htv, so the Cricut Heat Guide recommended 330 degrees.  I always press mine on a folded fluffy towel too - I didn't get good results using the special heat press mat in the past.

 

I wanted my design to be centered, but you could get creative with placement or angling.  The shirts got a 5 second preheat with the press and then I put the heat transfer vinyl on.  FYI, if you're new to using htv, you leave the carrier sheet on.

 

30 seconds on the front, 15 seconds on the back and then wait until cool to peel the carrier sheet off.  One of them wasn't fully adhered around one of the letter edges so I gave it another 15 second on the front and 5 more on the back.  Just don't go too long when re-pressing or it'll melt the htv. 

Wait 24hrs before washing and always wash on cold, delicate and line dry to keep the transfer nice.  I've had some shirts like this last for years and dozens of washes by doing all that, so it's worth it.  I can't wait to see my nephew and my little guy wearing these.  He's my sister's first baby, so it makes it extra special that it's Mom-themed.

 

I've also got these other fun shirt Valentine's Day tutorials using Heat Transfer Vinyl:

 

and this sweet Love Bug Applique too:

Happy Valentine's Day!

FREE Pattern: Lovebirds Valentine's Day Felt Treat Bag

How about a sweet little project for Valentine's Day?  I'm sharing the FREE PDF Pattern for my new Lovebirds Felt Treat Bag. 

 

 

It's a simple and inexpensive little project.  A bit of felt & ribbon and that's it!  Perfect for holding some chocolates or other Valentine's Day treats:

 

Cute kissing love birds inside a heart make the perfect holiday decoration:

 

 

 They assemble pretty fast so you can make a few in no time by machine or hand sewing and a little gluing magic.

 

Materials:

- Red, pink, white felt

- Tacky, school or fabric glue

- Optional: ribbon, puff paint 

Lovebirds Treat Bag PDF Pattern (Download HERE)

 

Print two of each of the pattern pages and cut the pieces apart.  Discard one of the base pieces (the one that says Print 1, since only one is needed).  Cut off the roof section of one of the main sides and tape the bases of the main sides and the small sides to the base piece.  If you only have smaller cuts of felt, don't tape together.

 

 Use this + shape to cut out the bag from the main color felt.  Cutting a single makes assembly a bit faster, but if you are working with smaller pieces of felt, just cut each bag piece separately and note that all sides will need to be stitched.

 Cut the heart and bird embellishments using the pattern pieces and cut little almond-shaped wings for the birds.  Cut a 1 inch wide x 12 inch long strip for the bag handle and a V-shape roof piece that's about 3/4 inch wide and a little longer than the roof peak of the pattern piece.  I also cut a piece of satin heart ribbon to decorate the roof peak:

 

 

Back to the bag!  Bring together two of the bag sides, with the cut edges facing out, and stitch from top to bottom with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, stopping 1/4 inch from the bag bottom.

 

Repeat with the remaining 3 sides.

 

 

 

 This part is optional if working from a single piece for the entire bag, but I found it helped the bag hold shape and also looked a little more finished. Pull the base edges nice & smooth and stitch 1/4 inch from the fold on each side, starting and stopping 1/4 inch from each corner.  Then stitch the handle piece onto each short side of the bag.

 

Embellishment time!  Glue the heart to the front of the bag and then the lovebirds to the center of the heart, glue on wings.  Add the roof peak and glue on any ribbon or other decoration.  I dabbed some dots of dimensional puff paint to make bird eyes.  Let dry with bag laying down for a few hours so things don't slide down while the glue is still wet.   

 

Felt+glue tip: Stick pieces together asap, so the glue doesn't soak into one piece and not "grab" the other.

 

  Then fill them with treats, stickers or whatever goodies you want and be ready to show the love to someone special ❤️

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

DIY Love You Gnome Matter What Valentine's Day Shirt

Disclosure: Some links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you,
I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

My littlest guy's first Valentine's Day is coming up and I wanted something cute for him to wear that wouldn't be outmoded the very next day and also wasn't white (aka a baby stain magnet).  There was just nothing cute in the stores, so I decided to make something sweet for him instead using stuff in my stash.  Everybody loves gnomes, so....

I came up with this "Love you gnome matter what" shirt!  The play on words and cute little gnome seemed perfect.

I thought it would be fun to share how I did it, 

so you can make one too!

Materials:

- Blank cotton shirt

- Heat transfer vinyl (I get mine from Happy Crafters)

- Cricut Explore or other cutting machine

- Iron and/or Cricut Easy Press*

Optional: fabric scrap and Heat & Bond Ultra

* You could use an iron for all of it, but I find HTV holds up a lot better when using an Easy Press or heat press (as in no peeling or puckering over time).  

I started with a blank baby shirt I'd bought on sale for less than $4 a while back.  It was patiently waiting in my stash for a project like this!

I started by making my cut-able fabric for the mushrooms.  Since I use the older Cricut Explore model, to cute fabric it needs to have Heat & Bond Ultra on the back to get a clean cut.  To make my mushrooms I used some scrap mini heart fabric with Heat & Bond Ultra fused to the wrong side with an iron (following the package directions). 

The paper gets peeled off and then it's primed to cut out on the Cricut.  

For the designs themselves, I used a free gnome & mushroom clip art found here to make a cut file for the center of my shirt.  I used the free iPiccy online editing tool and the free font Leckerli One to make my lettering of "Love you" and "matter what" into this png file.

I used Cricut Design Space to turn my png into a cut file and sized it to fit my little guys shirt (using the onesie template for a digital visual).

I mirrored the lettering before I cut it out from my heat transfer vinyl, since it gets cut carrier side facing down:

I used my several years old, but still works great, Cricut Explore to cut it out:

I did the same for the gnome and then cut the mushrooms out of the fabric (which gets cut fabric side up).

I did some quick weeding of my lettering to get it ready to press:

Then I got everything placed how I wanted it.  I heat fused the mushrooms on first with my iron since they required a different amount of time and the use of a press cloth.  Then I switched over to my Cricut Easy Press to fuse the heat transfer vinyl according to the temperature and material guide on the front and back side for the best adherence.  

Then pulled the carrier sheets off while still warm.

My Valentine gnome shirt was ready for my little Valentine to wear and it's gotten some big love from all of us already:

Happy Valentine's Day!