Getting into the Valentine's Day Spirit

So in order order to get into the Valentine's Day Spirit, and to add a little cheer to my cubicle at work, I decided to make an easy-to-make yarn heart. I originally got this idea from the decorative letters I've seen wrapped in yarn, so I wanted to try this out with a shape, like a heart for Valentine's Day.

For this craft, all you will need are three things: 1. An empty cereal box 2. Yarn and 3. A hot glue gun.

To begin, cut out a panel from your cereal box. If you wanted to make a smaller shape, than you can use less than a whole panel, but the size is up to you. Once you've cut out the cardboard from your cereal box, you now draw the heart, or desired shape, on the inside part of the cardboard. I freehanded my heart, but feel free to print out a shape to trace if you'd like. I drew a heart, reshaping it several times, and then drew an inner heart, as we will be cutting out the inside heart for the space to wrap the yarn. Then cut out the heart along the outer edge, leaving you with a heart like this.

Next, poke a hole through the interior of the heart and begin cutting along the inside edge. Don't worry too much about achieve a perfect shape. As long as it is relatively even, it will be fine. Once we wrap the yarn, you can always vary the thickness in certain areas to achieve an even look. Also, getting the yarn to stay around the points of the heart can be a little tricky, so cut the points to make them a flat. This will help a little, but feel free to wrap these points extra times if you need to to. Then we can begin wrapping the yarn. I chose a yarn with a several colors in it to make it more interesting, but you can use whatever yarn you want! You can always use several different color yarns as well.

With your hot glue gun, glue the piece of yarn to whatever side you decide will be the back of the heart. This way, even though the glue becomes mostly hidden by the yarn, it will all be on the same side. Next, begin wrapping the yarn around the cardboard. I found it was easier to use pieces of yarn about two-to-three feet long, especially on the inner most layer. This helps make it easier to wrap the yarn in and out of the heart. Also, on the first layer, it works best to wrap the yarn tightly, leaving little of the cardboard showing. This will of course be covered by the subsequent layers but because this is your base, do the best you can. Now simply continue, gluing the beginning and end pieces of yarn as you go, until you get the desired thickness. I wrapped my heart with three layers, each layer getting a little looser as I went.

At the end, I also decided to add a bit of embellishment with three simple buttons! I also thought of using rhinestones or gems. This can really make your heart look even better! And there you go. Hope you enjoy!