DesignsandEvents: Valentine Puppy Dog Hearts & More!

A little over a week ago we had a blizzard go through the area of the Northeast where I live in Groton, Massachusetts. It was one of those kinds of storms where weathermen had given plenty of forewarning, which was great, and one that you just had to wait it out and see what happened. In the end, we got the lighter end of the storm with only about 11" of snow. Other areas of the state got 30"!

So, since I was housebound and a bit antsy, I decided to do crafts for the afternoon. I had found some old doggy fabric stashed away a week before and thought I could do something with it on that snowy afternoon.

I decided on making more doggy valentine hearts. I had made a collection of them a year or two ago and had had a great time and wanted to do it again!

Here is the garland I made with the doggy hearts last year:

These were made with flannel fabric and were all handsewn.

~This time around, I made three different hearts~

This was the first one I made ↓. It was very simple, and I thought the puppy paw ribbon would go along with my theme. The base for the heart was beige-colored felt and the overlay heart was red felt. White beads create the center of the filigree on the right-hand side of the heart. At the end, I added a puppy paw ribbon bow and sewed two beads to the center.

Here is the second. I played around with stitches and patterns on this one. I am second guessing the choice of the pink ribbon now that I am looking at it. My thought was that the pink ribbon would look nice with the brown of the puppy paw fabric. I am still wondering about that choice but haven't done anything to change it, so far.

The third and final heart was this one ↓. I must tell you that I was on the phone with my daughter when I created it and I think I should have been better about editing the beads and what-not. It ended up being a little busy in looks but, I think it came out fine for an afternoon project.

I found the puppy ribbons in the same bag as the puppy flannel. I had used all of it for a puppy centerpiece I made for my grandson's first birthday party. You can see that project here if you would like.

I sewed rickrack to the hearts and created a vertical hanging by tying all of them together.

At first, I hung them on the same hutch along with last year's doggy garland but, in the end, I thought the look was too much.

I moved them into the kitchen and hung them from a couple of file holders I have on a set of

shelves in that room.

In the end, these hearts were the inspiration for adding a few Valentine touches to that room. I didn't want to go over the top, just a touch of red and pink here and there.