Valentine's Charms Tutorial + Template

I haven't sewn much since Christmas...house building and all.  But today (yes it was today) I wanted to make something lovey dovey.  Similar to the Love Where You Live Ornament, these little beauties are a combination of applique, embroidery, and scraps.  Would you believe these are made with used canning lids?

I thought these would look really fun hanging from a branch or in a shadowbox frame.  Maybe next year.  The best part is that if you sew much and ever home can, you probably everything you need to make these right now.  Want to whip some up for your family?
You'll need the following items:

• Your template, download HERE.
• Canning lids
• Heat n bond lite
• Scraps of fabric, larger pieces of white, and small pieces of your chosen colors.
• Scraps of interfacing
• Scraps of batting
• Ricrac
• Skinny ribbon
• Embroidery floss
• Cardstock or other heavy paper for backing
• Hot glue and glue gun
• Hand sewing needles, scissors, pencil or mark b gone pen, and your iron and ironing board.  

This is what your template looks like.  As you're tracing, remember the final product will be a mirror image of my drawings.

Step one.  Trace the shapes with pencil onto heat n bond lite.

Step Two.  Adhere your shapes onto the wrong side of your chosen fabric scraps.  Remember things will be a mirror image, so to get the red first on your rainbow heart, you start from the left side.

Step three.  Trace the can lid onto a scrap of interfacing, and cut out thecircle.

Step four.  With your iron, adhere the interfacing, and then trim your fabric to about 1/2" from the interfacing.

Step five.  Apply your chosen appliques to the RIGHT side of your fabric circle.

Repeat for each design.  It should look something like this:

Step six.  Add embroidery details.  I like the look of simple embroidery.  Suggestions include tracing the heart shapes with a running stitch, using hearts to make the rain falling from the cloud, and adding stems to the heart flowers.

Another optional detail is using a thin marker to write out little sayings.

Step seven.  Assemble the charms. Cut out batting circles the same size as your canning lid.

Using a hand needle, sew a gathering stitch around the perimeter of the circle.

Next, tuck the batting and can lid into your fabric circle, batting first.

Tighten up your stitches, and knot to secure.

Step eight.  Finishing touches. With the hot glue gun, add ricrac along the back of the charm, adjusting it so  the ricrac is just peeking from the front.

Cut about 10 inches of skinny ribbon to make a hanger, and glue to the back at the top.

Finally, trace the lid shape onto some cardstock, and cut out.  Glue to the back of the charm to hide your work.

And that's it!  Simple, fun little decorations to let your family know you love them.

Here are some close ups of each design:

I hope this sparks your handmade gift giving penchant.

Any fun surprises you're making for Valentine's Day?

Sharing with Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Along for the Ride, Creative Jewish Mom,  The Girl Creative, and Itsy Bitsy Paper.

Featured by Along for the Ride, and Craft Gossip!  Thank you!