[frame]Warning: Lonnnngggg post with lots of pics![/frame]

Today I bring you a DIY gift you can present to your loved ones for Valentines day! It’s been awhile since I’ve done a DIY post so I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Normally I don’t do anything for Valentine’s day but it seems to be a day my boyfriend celebrates and for the last two years he has gotten me cards for valentines so I figured I might as well be prepared and actually make something!
Initially I was just planning to make him some personalised tea bag wrappers (by Ez from Creature Comforts) but I found this origami heart love note (by Amy from Eat, Drink, Chic) and thought it was just too cute not to make! Instead of printing out the hearts from Creature Comforts, I folded a few from old ECG paperThis paper was from an old project that I did a year back – yay for recycling! Plus I just love the little pun (my heart beats for you – get it?) but I think I’m the only one to get it… and attached it to the ends of the string on the tea bags.
I’ll break this DIY into 3 sections; 1 – Folded heart tag, 2 – Personalised tea sachet, 3 – Tea bag dispenser. To make everything in one sitting will take about a day (especially if you end up having to battle the printer over a paper jam like I did!), the most time consuming part would be making the personalised tea sachet simply due to the fact that I had hand sewn all the sachets.

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1. Folded heart tag

Materials:

• PaperYou can print out patterned paper if you wish cut into a 2.5 cm X 7cm rectangle
• Cuticle stick or toothpick
• Tweezers (optional)
• Tape
• Double sided tape

Method:

1. Follow the instructions for the paper heart here
2. If you’ve never made it before I suggest trying it out on a larger piece of paper first. Important: if using patterned paper start with the designed side facing down.
3. At around step 7, it might be easier to use the cuticle stick to poke and fold it down.
4. Use the tweezers at step 8 to fold the corners in and the sharp tip of the cuticle stick in step 9 to form the little pockets indicated.
5. Once completed, pull off the tag that comes with the tea and tape the end of it to the heart where it folds over so you hide the string. Use double sided tape on top of the taped on string to keep the folded edge of the heart down.

Short cuts:

• Instead of folding all the way around the back, you can actually leave most of it in the state it is in at step 7. Just fold the corners that will form the curve of the heart. (see picture below)

[clear]2. Personalised tea sachet

[clear]Materials:

• Tracing paper
• Printable (find it near the end of the post titled “Origami heart pocket”) from Eat, Drink, ChicOptional, only use if you want the cute little ‘to my love’ at the bottom right corner of the packet
• Scissors
• Edger or scalloped scissors (optional)
• Embroidery thread (any kind of thread will do)
• Fine sewing needle

Method:

1. Print the printable from Eat, Drink, Chic onto tracing paper (if you don’t want to use the printable just proceed to step 2)
2. Cut the paper to size – for this it’ll depend on the size of your tea bags and how wide the opening for your tea dispenser will be. I used these measurements 8.5cm X 20cm unfolded.
3. Fold the paper and edge the sachet if you so wish.
4. Gently mark a pencil line about 1cm into the edge of the sachet and sew along that  line with a running backstitch so you’ll end up with a solid stitch line down the front (see picture below).
5. Repeat step 4 on the other side.
6. Trim any excess threads.
7. I left the opening untouched as I feel that it would be cumbersome to open the sachets if I sewed it shut. But feel free to seal it anyway you deem fit.
8. Pen in the name of the tea anywhere on the sachet (I chose to pen it onto the top left corner).
9. Gently push the tea bag into the sachet and make sure the heart tag is facing the right way!
10. Note: This is very, very, VERY time consuming – if you have a sewing machine go for it, but make sure the needle you use is as fine as possible or you might end up with ugly holes on the sides of your paper.

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3. Tea bag dispenser

[clear]Materials:

• Boxany kind as long as it’ll fit your tea – a good idea is to use the box that the tea came in
• Pen knife
• Cut proof mata stack of newspapers will work as well
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Compass
• Decorative paper
• Glue or double sided tape

Method:

1. Flip the lid of the box open and measure how long it is at the point where it joins to the box. Take a centimeter off the total measurement and divide it in half. This new measurement is the radius of the semicircle that will be the opening of the dispenser.
2. Draw a straight line across the lid aproximately 0.5-1cm above where it joins to the rest of the box. Mark the center of the line.
3. Place the pointed tip of the compass at the center of the line and mark a semicircle.
4. Place the box over the cut proof mat and score a little hole in the middle of the semicircle and using your scissors, carefully cut the semicircle out.
5. To decorate, cut out the decorative paper to size and wrap around the boxI was fortunate that the T2 box I used had a lovely patterned side so I didn’t have to wrap the sides. If you want to wrap around the whole box I suggest you wrap it in two parts; one strip to wrap around the width of the box and another strip to wrap around the length of the box. This way you won’t get thick bludgy sections where you folded the paper on itself. Make sure you adhere the strips tightly to the box!. Tap or double side tape the paper down (I find using the double sided tap to be more aesthetically pleasing). For the lid I did it almost exactly as in steps 2-4 but I reduced the size of the semicircle by 1cm in every dimension.
6. Score the rounded edge of the semicircle on the decorative paper and fold the flaps in. Tape them down on the other side (see picture below).
7. Tape down any edge sticking out and make sure everything is where it should be! Place your tea bags in to the dispenser and you’re done!

[clear]Final product!

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I hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's day!Alternatively known as singles appreciation day ;D My next post will hopefully be made from the US as I will be leaving for a two week holiday/family visit~ By then I should have new things to review and rave about!

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