Weave a paper heart basket for the tree...

Scandinavian woven heart baskets for hanging.
Alternatively these may also be made using
felt instead of paper.

   Scandinavian, woven heart baskets would look lovely on a Christmas tree or given as gifts for Valentines Day. Stuff these with chocolates and exchange them anytime of year...

Supply List:

• two contrasting papers: red and white
• scissors
• white school glue
• candy

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut a rectangle of each color 2 1/2" x 9" inches.
2. Fold each so the short edges come together.
3. Draw a line 1 1/2 inch from the open short edges and parallel to same.
4. On the line just drawn place dots 1/2 inch apart on the closed edge just opposite and connect corresponding dots by straight lines.
5. Cut from closed edge along lines just drawn.
6. Place the two rectangles at right angles.
7. Begin to weave the first double strip of the white into the red strips.
8. Open the red and let the white pass through the double.
9. Next, open the white and let the red pass through the white double. 
10. Open the white and admit the red. Continue until the end of the strip is reached.
11. Allow the woven strip to push along to make room for the second strip of the white, which is woven from the bottom. It starts out opening the white, allowing the red to pass through Continue until the strip is woven.
12. Push the woven strips along to make room for each new one. Continue along until all the white strips are woven. 
13. Round the corners of the rectangles and turn the basket as shown in the illustration. 
14. Add handle of paper.

More Links to Woven Paper Baskets:

• How to make beautiful Danish heart baskets 
• Norwegian paper baskets

Embroider a Hungarian Matyó Heart Ornament

The Matyó heart that hangs on
 my sister-in-law's tree.

      The Matyó embroidered heart is still popular in the decorative textile arts of Hungry and a perfect traditional ornament addition to any Eastern European Christmas tree.

Supply List:

• a variety of embroidery floss in many colors
• large embroidery needle
• white or ivory felt
• needle and white thread to match the felt color
• cotton batting stuffing
• scissors
• a soft lead pencil or a washable marker

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut two identical heart shapes from felt or wool. Set one of the aside for the back. You may choose to keep this one blank or to embroider it as well so that the ornament may be seen from either side if you like.
2. Use a soft pencil to draw your floral image directly onto the felt. You could use a washable marker for this if you prefer.
3. Thread your embroidery needle and proceed to fill in stitches till the flower motifs look complete.
4. Now pin the right sides of the heart facing each inside and sew a straight seam around the hearts leaving a small one inch hole.
5. Turn the felt heart inside out and stuff it with cotton batting.
6. Use an invisible stitch to close the hole.
7. Attach a ribbon or gold twine for hanging the ornament from the Christmas tree.

More traditional Hungarian designs for embroidery.

More Related Content:

• We (heart) old world Hungary holiday traditions 
• Heartfelt and Simply Lovely
• Folk heart
• Embellished Matyo in Pinks and Reds
• Embellished, Beaded Hearts by Beedeebabee

Christmas in Budapest

Two Ways To Craft Dangling Valentine Ornaments

       Below are two variations of the same craft. One of the ornaments uses flat cardboard hearts with three dimensional stickers and the other uses three dimensional Styrofoam hearts and flat lace stickers. Either way, you can't go wrong with this simple process. Make endless decorative heart combinations to fill the branches of your Valentine tree!

Two dangling cardboard hearts including three dimensional cherubim stickers.

Supply List:

• three dimensional cherubim stickers
• cardboard hearts
• decorative papers to cover the heart shapes
• a small selection of glass beads
• thin red rick-rack
• hot glue gun and glue
• tacky white glue
• wire for hanging and a bit extra to shape U shaped hooks

Directions:

1. Cut out a heart shape from a sturdy piece of card stock.
2. Cut two small 1/2 inch pieces of thin wire. 
3. Bend each wire into a U shape.
4. Using hot glue attach one U shape bent wire to each end of the heart. Make sure the U shape tips are facing towards the center of the heart. 
5. Bend a wire hook to thread through the top U shaped wire to hang the heart.
6. Use a needle threaded with dental floss to string a few decorative glass beads through the U shaped hook suspended from the cardboard heart's bottom half.
7. Cut two hearts the exact same size as your cardboard heart from decorative papers.
8. Glue these onto the cardboard heart using white tacky glue.
9. Paste a thin red rick-rack trim around the outside edge of the paper covered cardboard heart.
10. Glue on three dimensional cherubim to both the front and back sides of the dangling cardboard heart so that the ornament will look nice when it spins on the branches of a Valentine tree.

A dangling Styrofoam heart ornament.

Supply List:

• a three dimensional Styrofoam heart covered with red glitter
• lace patterned heart stickers
• gold chenille stem
• a small assortment of red glass beads
• dental floss
• needle
• white tacky craft glue
• wire hook for hanging
• gold rick-rack

Directions:

1. Use tacky white glue to adhere a small piece of gold rick-rack around the outside edge of the Styrofoam heart.
2. Glue on a selection of lace heart stickers.
3. Cut two small 1/2 inch pieces of thin wire. 
4. Bend each wire into a U shape.
5. Push the U shaped wire ends into opposite ends of the Styrofoam heart. Pull these out and fill the holes with tacky white glue and then reinsert the U shaped wires.
6. Let the hooks in the heart dry before stringing the top end of the Styrofoam heart with a wire for hanging. 
7. Bend a tinsel chenille stem through the bottom wire hook of the Styrofoam heart and shape this stem into a heart shape. Hook the end tip into the beginning point of the stem.
8. Use a needle threaded with dental floss to string a few decorative glass beads through the U shaped hook suspended from the Styrofoam heart's bottom half.

Sew Easy Iron-On Embroidery Rose Heart Ornaments

      You can make these simple layered heart ornaments with scraps of fabric, embroidery threads and embroidery decals. I trimmed my layered fabrics with a blanket or button hole stitch. Normally you would iron on the embroidery patch only and finish off the project. However, I added an additional blanket stitch to the edging of my iron-on embroidery roses because these examples were cut from an old recycled pair of jeans. I then added a ribbon to each one for hanging.

The blanket stitch demonstrated.

Learn More About Embroidery Techniques on Machines:

• The easy way to make embroidered patches
• How to Do Free Motion Embroidery On Any Digital Sewing Machine
• Studio Galli Fine Arts & Crafts Films 

Craft Papier Mâché Heart Shaped Ornaments

These papier mâché hearts are very light weight. Each torn piece of paper was applied meticulously by hand. Although it is difficult to see, I glued a tiny wire loop between the two humps of each heart shaped ornament so that I may add beaded hangers to these hearts when I am ready to set up my Valentine tree.

On the left, you can see the paper that I used to layer on top of my masked forms. The paper was imported from India; It's texture is quite soft and dense. This is ideal paper for mâché work.

Here you can see from left to right, the step-by-step process that I used when shaping and masking my hearts for our Valentine's Day tree.

The crushed paper hearts were masked with tape completely and then set
aside until I was ready to cover each heart with layers of
paper and Modge Podge.

• Read more about Papier Mâché toys
• Read more about how to identify antique papier mâché.
• Two recipe versions for papier mâché made with traditional wheat paste
• One old method for making papier mâché pulp

Sew a Few Wool Hearts for Your Christmas Tree

      This past Christmas I decided to use up some wool scraps I had stashed in
my collections of fabric. I layered and cut three different sizes of hearts and then
stitched these together with a blanket stitch. Then I added a few ribbon rosettes to
the center of each heart.

A video showing how to sew a simple blanket stitch.

More Wool Ornaments:

•  Wool Christmas Tree Ornaments
• Felted wool Christmas tree ornament
• Wool folk art ornaments from Indigo Junction
• Wool plum pudding ornaments