Hi again! I'm excited to share another day of love with you! Today is focused on sharing the love with others!
So let's be honest: one of the best things about Valentine's Day in my book is the built-in excuse to eat candy! Ok, let's be a little more honest: I've never actually needed an excuse to eat candy. But maybe you or your friends do. So what better excuse to buy some and share the love than today's project?
What's great about these is they really aren't that difficult to make! You will need:
- lightweight scrapbook paper
- die cutting machine or a large heart template to trace (5" across at its widest point)
- sewing machine or needle and thread for hand sewing
- Funnel
- M&Ms
Setting myself up for this project sounds like the beginning of a joke: So a girl walks into a room with a funnel, a camera, and a sewing machine. So if you think of a punchline, let me know! Anyway, back to the tutorial!
However you manage to do it, cut a bunch of hearts out of your enemies' chests your lightweight cardstock. Place two hearts together back to back and capture them under the foot of your sewing machine. Sewing them together is really easy as long as you do the following:
- a basic straight stitch: now is not the time for zig-zag and shenanigans. You have enough going on already
- the longest, widest stitch your machine will allow
- the loosest tension your machine will allow
- a certain level of chill. Look, this is different from your average sewing project. You're not sewing clothes that have to survive the slings and arrows of regular life. You're sewing together two paper hearts that will have candy wedged between them. So don't stress about reversing back over your stitches at the beginning to lock them down. You'll probably just end up with a severely bent needle (been there). If you must obsess over it, just do it manually. Don't worry about trying to perfectly line up your sewing lines. You're going to be stopping and starting a lot. Just make this easy on yourself.
Now, start sewing. I started near the bottom of the heart, giving myself a 1/2" seam allowance. When I got to the point of the heart, I made sure my needle was sunk into the paper, lifted the foot of the sewing machine, and rotated the heart so I could just sew up the side. You don't need to guide the heart along a lot. You will occasionally need to use the rotation trick I just taught you, especially in the curves of the heart. This is where some of that chill needs to factor in because if you try to make it a smooth round curve, it's going to take you F-O-R-E-V-E-R and that negates the reason for sewing it on the sewing machine and, in a fit of more honesty, seems completely unnecessary for a candy packet that will be ripped open and thrown away mere minutes after you have bestowed it on someone.
Once you've sewn around the majority of the heart, stop, pull it out, and cut the threads.
You have just left a gap which is where you will put your funnel in and guide your M&Ms to the various parts of the heart. You aren't going to get a ton of them in there (I made a dozen of these and still had some M&Ms left over from a 11.40 oz. bag). It will pretty much be a single layer. And you don't want to overfill it because you have to be able to catch that edge under your sewing machine foot again and close that gap. I pick up a few stitches back where I left off and then do my best to keep it lined up so I sew right over the stitches where I started and right off the end. If I don't succeed at this, it's not a big deal! It's still sewn up well enough that the packet does not come apart before gifting! And that's really the main goal!
Now the thing you'll notice when you've finished sewing them up is that the edges may not have perfectly lined up. And yes, I know I said you should have a certain level of chill, but I didn't mean it should be arctic! And this was one detail that I just couldn't ignore. Thankfully, it's super easy to fix! All you have to do is grab some regular or decorative edge scissors and just trim around it. Regular scissors keep it clean! I liked the idea of a decorative edge, though. With that 1/2" seam allowance, there's plenty of room to trim it up!
Et voila!
You can, of course, add further customization by adding nametags or a little poem, customizing the colors to a particular scheme, etc. I particularly find myself enamored with the idea of a basket of these by the door as a going away favor at a party. But I also like these just as they are.
Speaking of party, tomorrow's day of love might just be helpful to you if you are planning one! See you tomorrow!