Top female charm: Valentine Shabby Puff Hearts Tutorial

In my effort to put a Valentine decoration here and there around the house, I browsed Esty. For decor, I generally tend to lean towards primitive, shabby chic, or country style. As I was browsing, I came across some super cute shabby puffy fabric hearts. Normally, I'm a buyer instead of a DIY'er, but I'm trying to change my ways. I saved about $20 doing these on my own!

I knew these puffy hearts were something I could make, and I had all supplies on hand, thankfully. I'll try to quickly walk you through the steps, but they are pretty easy peasy, even with the most basic sewing skills.

You'll Need:

- tea bags

- jumbo bowl for steeping fabric

- Valentine's themed rubber stamps and pad

- cotton fabric (for hearts)

- linen or muslin fabric for decorating hearts

- sewing machine

-thread

- scissors

- stuffing/filler

First, you need to gather the fabric you'd like to use. Cut into big squares (depending on how big you'd like your hearts.

Steep two jumbo tea bags (or 4 smaller ones) and soak your fabric. I did mine for about 10 minutes. Since the tea was pretty strong, the fabric got 'aged' quickly.

Let your fabric dry after they have their tea bath. I got impatient so I threw mine into the dryer for 20 minutes.

While I was waiting, I took that time to stamp little muslin fabric pieces ( you could also use linen if in a pinch) with lovey dovey things. I stamped "te amo", my nieces name, me and Southern Hubby's pet name- Bee, xoxo, kiss me, and a cupid.

By this time, to be quite honest, I was getting impatient. These little suckers take a bit to make but they were fun in the process. Just can be time consuming. Consider yourself forwarned. :)

Iron your tea-dyed fabric. Make a rough outline of your heart shapes using a fabric pen. For a more primitive and shabby look, you don't want your hearts super perfect. I did everything free hand and liked the way they came out.

Cut around the heart shape, leaving lots of border. You will be handsewing to close.

Pin and sew the small muslin stamped fabric pieces onto the front of the hearts. You must remember to do this first because you won't be able to do it after you've sewn your hearts together.

Pin your heart shapes with the right sides together and sew along your outline. Rememeber: Leave 1.5-2" open so that you can turn the hearts inside out.

Using a pencil or knitting needle, turn your hearts inside out.

Stuff some stuffing/filler into the hearts making them as puffy as you'd like.

Then using matching thread, hand-sew the hearts closed.

That's it! :) You've got some super easy (but time-consuming) Valentine's Day decorations! I've gotten plenty of compliments on my little bowl fillers already.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. I can try and help.