Nothing says love like crafty valentine

Who’s your daddy, who’s your baby, who’s your buddy, who’s your friend?” country crooner Toby Keith asks in a song. If you know the answer to that question and want to send a handmade valentine to a loved one, it’s time to get stitchin’ and craftin’.

Let your first stop be www. marthastewart.com, where you will find directions for making an accordion-fold valentine and easy paper lace doily valentines. About all you need to whip up a bunch of these – maybe even one for Toby Keith – is nice paper, card stock and envelopes, paper doilies, scissors and glue sticks. Mom, Dad and the kids can all get involved in a project like this on a Sunday afternoon.

But don’t stop at paper. Visit www.crochetpatterncentral

.com, where you will find free directions for a Heart of America pin, a red heart pin and several heart bookmarks. These designs are so easy a truly crochet-crazed mom could make one for everybody in her child’s classroom.

You’d rather celebrate Valentine’s Day by knitting? Visit www.knittingpatterncentral.com to find free patterns for a lacy heart, valentine heart socks, twin hearts lapel pin and a knitted lace heart bookmark. Talk about wearing your knitted heart on your sleeve – the bookmark alone is the perfect way to let a

special someone know that you are all tangled up in loving thoughts.

Those who find bliss in the simple cross-stitch should visit www.freepatternsonline.com to find charts for 21 different hearts, a cupid, a chain of hearts and other heart-themed cross-stitch designs. The heart designs are so simple you could stitch all 21 in an evening. Stitching these hearts and inserting them into photo-frame card stock is the perfect way to let all your best friends know you care.

Another stitching option is to stitch directly on card stock. Draw a heart on the front of the card and outline it with back-stitches using silk ribbon, floss, yarn or eyelash yarn for a funky mood. You could add beads to the stitching as you go to glitz things up a bit.

Knit or crochet a few tiny hearts and sew them to card stock to create your own unique way to say, “Love me, love me, do.”

Other ways to let it be known that “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” are:

. Cut out a pink heart, glue it to white card stock, and sew onto the heart large and small buttons in various shades of red.

. Cut out fabric hearts from velvet or satin and use a glue stick to hold them in place. Stitch around the heart with narrow organdy ribbon in a contrasting color.

. Create a “pieced” heart by cutting snippets of patterned paper and use a glue stick to adhere them into a heart shape on the card.

. Use your sewing machine to stitch fabric hearts directly to card stock. Use fancy zigzag stitches to hold the heart in place.

. Have a valentine stamparee – use several different heart stamps and red ink on white card stock.

Add a handwritten message of love to your creation, bestow the valentine on the object of your affection, and bask in the bliss.

Snippets

. Hope Lutheran Church, 1520 Union St., is sponsoring a beginning sewing class that will teach participants basic sewing. Classes will meet 1-3 p.m. Saturdays, beginning Feb. 10, at the church.

The classes are part of an effort to provide quilts for the needy around the world through the Lutheran World Relief organization. The quilts made in the classes will be sent to a central location and distributed to areas that require relief.

There is a $10 charge for the class. Materials and some sewing machines will be provided. For more information and to register, call 862-4619.

. Www.knittinghelp.com has free knitting videos you can view at the site. Free knitting patterns also are available.

. Want to learn about making stuff that has an arty, inventive edge? Stuff like easy wall projects or a mod couch? Then ReadyMade magazine might be just the thing for you. Visit www.readymademag.com for more information.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.