Show your love this Valentine’s Day with a heart string art card! Use our free heart templates to make one of these super cute string art cards that are SO FUN to make!
Poke holes in a blank card and use embroidery floss in your favourite colour to create a pretty heart design across the front. It’s such a cool way to send a personalized greeting to your Valentine!
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How to Make Heart String Art Cards
Materials:
- FREE Printable Heart Template
- Cardstock (cut to 7 x 10 inches, folded in half)
- Embroidery floss (red, or colour of choice)
- Tape
- Printer paper (cut to 6-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches, or 1/2 inch smaller than card dimensions)
- Glue tape
Equipment:
- Cork trivet (or cork board)
Check Out The Video Tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Punch holes in the card
- Choose and print one of our free heart outlines. (Check below this tutorial for more details on which heart template we recommend.)Cut around the shape, leaving a bit of a border around the outside.
- Make loops with painter's tape and attach them to the back of the template.Make sure the tape is within the lines of the shape (not too close to the edge).
- Attach the heart to the front of a blank card, centering it as best you can.
- Open the card up and place the front of it on a cork trivet or corkboard.
- Use a large needle to punch holes around the outline of the template, going through the card.Be sure to place a hole at every point of the design, and make your holes a little over 1/4 inch apart.
- Once you've made your way all around the outline of the heart, peel off the template from the front of the card.
- Use a ruler to measure 1 inch down from the top center point of the heart. Push the needle through at this mark.
- Move the needle with a circular motion to make a larger hole.
Step 3: Add a string art design across the heart
- String a needle with embroidery floss. You'll want to start with a length of string about 2 feet long (24 inches).If you have too long a thread it can tangle easily, so kids might want to start with a shorter string. It's fine if you need to use several different strands to make the card.
- Open the card and insert your needle into one of the holes from the inside (it doesn't matter where you start).
- Pull the string through to the front, all the way until only 1/4 inch or so remains on the inside.Tape the string into place. You can use a whole piece of tape, but this can get in the way of the holes in the card, so we cut a piece of tape into smaller pieces.
- From the front, push the needle back down through the larger center hole.
- Pull the floss through. Then push the needle through the next outside hole.You can work clockwise or counterclockwise -- whatever you choose, just be sure to keep working in that direction.
- Bring the floss back through the center hole.
- Keep working around the heart in this pattern until you run out of thread.Tape the floss on the inside of the card and cut off the extra.
- Start a new piece of floss (taping it into place again) and work around the heart until every outside hole has string going to the center.
Step 4: Make a border around the heart
- Now we're going to make a border around the heart.From the inside, push your needle through the hole you started with.
- From the front, push the needle back down through the next hole in the border.Then inside the card, push the needle back to the front through the next hole up. Once you've pulled the string tight to the front again, go back down to the previous hole.
- Continue working around the heart, forming a border.On the inside you'll always go up to a hole with no string across the back, and then back down to the previous hole on the outside.
- Once the border is complete, tape off the string on the inside of the card and cut off any extra thread.
Step 5: Add a card insert
- Cut a piece of printer paper to 6-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches and fold it in half. (Or half an inch smaller than the outer card size).Add glue tape (or double sided tape) to one side of the paper, along the edges and a bit in the center as well.
- Line up the paper insert so there's an even amount of space on each side and then close the card, pressing down.This will connect the insert to one side of the card, covering up the inside stitches and tape.
- Repeat, attaching the other side of the insert to the back of the card, and then write your Valentine's Day message inside.
- Your heart string art card is complete!
Helpful Tips:
- Kids can use a plastic embroidery needle to weave the embroidery thread through these heart string art cards.
- Make sure your string is long enough to work with, but not too long, because the thread will knot easily if you work with a really long piece of thread. You’ll need to start a new thread at least once, but it’s okay to use multiple strands to make the card.
Free printable templates for heart string art:
Click the link below to find the shape we used to make our string art cards! The templates are free to download and print.
For the heart string art card that we made in the tutorial above, we used the medium size of Heart Outline #1 found here:
>>> Heart Outline <<<
What paper is best for making heart string art cards?
We used 65 lb coloured cardstock to create our own blank card. It works well, but it does bend easily. Try buying 80 lb cardstock if you want a card that’s a bit more sturdy.
Or if you don’t want to cut the paper to size, you can also buy blank cards!
What other string can you use for heart string art cards?
If you don’t have embroidery floss you can use crochet cotton, 2mm macrame cord, or thin yarn to make your string art card. Yarn is thicker and fuzzier than the embroidery floss, but it still works well!
Send a sweet greeting to your Valentine with these heart string art cards! Combine your favourite Valentine’s Day colours to make one of these super cute and easy homemade cards.
Here’s even more Valentine’s Day craft ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
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