Hearts, Hearts, Hearts!

As I mentioned before, I've caught the Valentine's Day bug, and have been making all kinds of heart embellishments that can go on cards, in collages, or on journal pages.  I thought I would share three ways to create a variety of Valentine hearts yourself.

I made heart templates in three sizes, the old-fashioned way:  I folded a paper over and drew half a heart, then cut it out so that I would have perfect symmetry.

First, I made postage stamp hearts:

For these, I cut around the template to create a heart-shaped piece of paper, and then glued on the red and pink colored postage stamps to fill the shape.  I trimmed around the edges, and voila!  Simple, simple, and a pretty way to use cancelled stamps.

Next, I used a techniqe I read about in a recent Cloth Paper Scissors eNewsletter to create these torn-paper hearts:

I tore various hand-painted papers into strips (these were all done with acrylic paints), and lightly glued them (with a glue stick) to a large piece of paper.  I used the sewing machine to sew bright thread horizontally and vertically across the strips.  Then I laid the heart templates on the back, used a pencil to outline the hearts, and cut the shapes out.  I went back to the sewing machine to create borders around the hearts. 

Finally, I made torn text-page hearts, using the same basic approach:

I alternated text pages in English, French, and German, and used light-colored thread for the horizontal and vertical stitches.  After cutting out the hearts, I used bright thread for around the edges.

I haven't used all of these hearts yet, but I'm kind of just enjoying them lying around in my work space, inspiring me and keeping me in the Valentine spirit.  After all, we have a whole month before we get to celebrate officially!