I Heart Crafts Round-Up, Part 1

10 Handmade Things For Your Sweetie

Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is coming. But there’s no reason to settle for icky-cute hearts and cherubs and pink lace all over everything (yuck!). For this love-themed round-up, I searched high and low across the world wide interwebs for V-Day crafts that won’t give you diabetes. In fact, I found so many awesome things that this will be the first of two Valentine’s Day round-ups, so stay tuned!

Why You Should Be Mine

These cards from Fooka Designs are a bit like those notes kids pass around in school (Do you like me? Check yes or no.) but for really anal types. Give one of these to the lawyer or accountant in your life, and you’re sure to win them over with your romantic thoroughness (just make sure you initial it five times and get it notarized).

Screen Printed Animal Puns

Silly puns have been a Valentine card tradition for many years, but most of them are not as cute and well-executed as these cards by Westmama. They’re a great alternative to the cheap and cheesy cards available at every store this time of year.

Love Yetis

In spite of being kind of ugly and decidedly strange, I find these five-inch-tall Love Yetis to be inexplicably cute. If you have anyone in your life who is a bit offbeat and has an unusual sense of humour, give them one of these to make them feel all warm and fuzzy.

Twig Heart

Hhead into the forest and gather some twigs to earn some Girl Scout cred by making this woven twig heart designed by Sweet Paul.

Heart-Shaped Pouch

If you’re comfortable with the idea of sewing a zipper into a tight curve (not for the faint of heart*) head over to The Purl Bee to learn how to make your own heart-shaped pouch. Make one and fill it up with chocolate—it’s a great environmentally-friendly alternative to the elaborate and disposable chocolate packaging that’s so common this time of year.


*Pun not intended

Bite Me Pillow

We’re all familiar with those chalky candy hearts with no discernible flavour. The worst/best part of them are those cheesy sayings—I can’t help but wonder whose job it is to write them. I love Dominitrix’ take on it with this wonderfully sarcastic Bite Me pillow. If you enjoy well-crafted sarcasm as much as I do, you’ll have lots of fun coming up with alternate sayings to stitch onto it.

Olive You

If your sweetie isn’t really into pink hearts and cherubs, knit him or her this cute jar of olives from Cut Out + Keep to show that you really get them.

Melted Heart Crayon

This melted heart crayon is a nice Valentine’s Day gift to make and give to kids, while getting rid of old broken crayons at the same time. Best of all, you can download a free PDF on the same web page of cards to print out and attach the crayons to.

Let Me Count the Ways

I love this sweater with a binary heart knit into it. I’m not sure what all the zeroes and ones really mean, but after all the effort and detail that goes into making something like this, I’m sure the recipient would agree that it means “I love you”.

A Magnetic Attraction

Learn how to make this LED valentine on Instructables. Give your sweetie one half, then attach both together to make the LEDs light up.