Embroidered Heart Valentine’s Card Tutorial

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Time required: 45 minutes
Age range: 12 and up

Things you’ll need:
Pink yarn
Cardstock
Scrap paper
Pencil
Ruler
Washi tape
Tapestry needle
Push pin
Tape

Things to do:
1. Fold a sheet of cardstock in half, bringing the short ends of the paper together.

2. Using a ruler and pencil, draw 1″ grid squares on a scrap sheet of paper. Don’t worry if you make a mistake; no one will see this part later!

3. Draw a heart shape on the grid by filling in darker outlines.

4. Roll up two small pieces of washi tape and press them onto the top and bottom of the card. These pieces are permanent, but they will help avoid any tears on the cardstock later.

5. Place the heart grid outline over the taped front of the card.

6. Using the push pin, poke a hole on each square’s corner where you marked the heart outline.

7. Continue until you have marked each square of the entire outline.

8. Remove the scrap paper and washi tape from the card.

9. Cut a long strand of yarn that’s around 161″ long. Thread the tapestry needle, then pull the yarn up through the bottom left hole of the heart.

10. Flip the card over and place a piece of tape on the yarn tail to secure it.

11. Now we’re going to backstitch to embroider the heart. Here’s how: Insert the tapestry needle from front to back into the hole that’s diagonally above and to the right of the first hole you threaded. Pull the yarn through.

12. Insert the tapestry needle from back to front into the hole that’s again diagonally above and to the right of the previous hole you threaded. Pull the yarn through.

13. Insert the tapestry needle from front to back into the second hole in the diagonal line (the hole that’s diagonally below and to the left of the previous hole you threaded). Note that you have previously threaded this hole, and that sometimes the yarn will be going through the same hole more than once. Pull the yarn through.

14. Insert the tapestry needle from back to front through the third hole in the diagonal line. Pull the yarn through.

15. Insert the needle from front to back into the last hole of the diagonal. Pull the yarn through. This completes one diagonal line of backstitching.

16. Continue backstitching diagonal lines in this direction until you have filled all the outlines. Notice that we did not stitch the upper left holes at the top of the heart or the lower right holes at the bottom of the heart.

17. Once you’ve stitched all the diagonals in one direction, change direction and stitch the other side. Tip: If you need to move from one side of the heart to the other, you can cut the yarn, tape it to the back to secure it, then start a new strand. This is especially helpful if you don’t have a lot of yarn to work with.

18. Continue stitching until you have stitched each hole. If you’d like, you can also add Xs to your design if you’re not happy with it.

19. Cut the excess yarn, then tape it to the back to secure it. Write a message in your card and send it off to your valentine!

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