I’ll be honest, I never really considered the serious crafting possibilities of plastic canvas until Diane from CraftyPod opened my eyes. Last year she organized the plastic canvas blog hop that I made baby blocks for and I’ve been wanting to experiment more with it ever since.

I had this idea for making a heart box for Valentine’s Day but I was struggling with getting the shape right. I emailed Diane and she suggested sticking with 45 degree angles when working with plastic canvas and that helped immensely! I have a pattern for the box at the end of the post.

The pattern has three different box sizes, I did the middle size. I put the paper underneath the plastic canvas and just traced the pattern on it with Sharpie. Make sure you get the lines as close to the grid as possible and that the angles of the heart are cut diagonally right between the squares. Cut out the heart carefully. Whichever size you pick, make another heart that is one grid square bigger on each side for the lid.

You can use any stitch to cover your heart and any color configuration, I just used a tent stitch using leftover pink yarn I had.

I lined my heart up against the canvas and traced the width for each edge piece. For the lid I made it three squares high and the base of the box is eight. You can make the box as deep as you want by adjusting the amount of rows.

Diane has an amazing series of videos on YouTube dealing with everything you need to know about working with plastic canvas and I referenced them many times while making this! It’s all pretty self explanatory except for one thing. Because of the angle of the plastic canvas, there are actually two rows of stitches that are exposed along the edge. To deal with this, I simply alternated which row I was going into while I was joining.

I did two stitches in each hole on the trim to make sure it was really covered, especially on the corners. There were a few times where the number of stitches on the two pieces I was joining didn’t seem to add up, but I just did an extra stitch in one of the holes and it all worked out.

Now this next part is 100% optional. Since the interior of the box is visible (and if you’re like me, that’s not the prettiest sight) you can add a lining. Now, you could do the inside edges too, but I just cut a heart to place at the bottom of the box and inside the lid because I’m lazy like that.

I realized I should have traced the heart before it was joined, so bear with me. I traced the box and of course the felt was too big to fit, so I just kept cutting off little bits of each edge until it fit. Not the most precise way to approach it, but it worked! Again, if you have the foresight, tracing the heart before hand will make this step easier!

A little bit of hot glue and you’re good to go!

This is a perfect little gift box to fill with Valentine’s Day treats! Evie was very excited when she opened the box and found it was full of heart candy!

Have you worked with plastic canvas before? I definitely plan on experimenting more with it!

Download the PDF here – Plastic Canvas Valentine’s Heart Box Pattern

There are more free patterns to download here, and patterns to purchase here at my Etsy.