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Easy DIY Twine Hearts for Valentine’s Day – Cross My Heart(s)!

Learn how to make DIY Twine Hearts for Valentine’s Day. These decorations are easy to make!

Three twine heart decorations (one red, one pink, and one tan) laying across a Valentine's day heart ribbon.

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DIY Twine Hearts Project Overview

After making twine tree decorations for Christmas, I decided to use twine to make decorations for Valentine’s Day too. I set out to create a twine heart centerpiece or hanging hearts adorned with fairy lights. I’m so pleased with how the final twine hearts turned out!

Vintage toolbox containing three twine hearts. Three rolls of twine and a pitcher with roses complete the Valentine's Day vignette.

Jute twine, heart-shaped balloons and glue were the building blocks for this project.

Supplies for making DIY twine hearts. Three rolls of twine (red, tan, and pink), heart-shaped balloons, and Aleene's Tacky Glue.

Jute Twine

Since I was making Valentine’s Day decorations, I used red, dark pink, and natural brown jute twine.

Heart-Shaped Balloons

Because I wanted the final decorations to be on the smaller-size, I used 6″ heart-shaped balloons that I found on Amazon. They worked great (once I learned the hard way not to over-inflate them). It only took me a few popped balloons to learn when to stop blowing.

Glue

Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue was the last key ingredient. It worked well for my Twine Christmas Tree project, so I decided to use it again. Because this glue is a bit thick, I added a little water to thin it before coating the twine.

Coating Process

When making the Twine Christmas Trees, I pulled the twine through a small container of glue. Since the Valentine’s Day project used much more twine, I decided to forgo the pull-through method.

Instead, I simply coated the twine-wrapped balloons with a lot of glue using a foam brush. While this was a messier process, I wanted to make sure the twine was completely saturated with the glue to make the hearts sturdier.

Instructions for DIY Twine Hearts

Here’s What I Used

Contains affiliate links

Materials

Tools

Project Steps

Time needed: 2 days

DIY Twine Hearts Tutorial

  1. Inflate small heart-shaped balloons

    Inflate three 6″ heart-shaped balloons to roughly the same size. Be careful not to over-inflate the balloons since they can pop. Tie off the balloons once filled.

    Inflated heart-shaped balloon which will become the base for making DIY Twine Hearts.

  2. Tie jute twine to balloon neck

    Take the end of a roll of twine and tie it to the neck of the balloon above the lip. This is to anchor the string in place when you start wrapping the balloon.

    Hands tying twine to a ballon to create a DIY twine heart.

  3. Wrap the twine around the balloon

    Using a random pattern, wrap the jute twine around the balloon. Wrap the string around and around, up and down, and diagonally all around the balloon.

    Heart-shaped balloon partially covered with twine from a roll of tan twine.

  4. Keep wrapping with more string

    Wrap more and more twine around the balloon until it has solid coverage. Look for any exposed area of the balloon and determine whether more string is needed to make the structure stronger.

    Heart-shaped balloon covered in dry twine.

  5. Cut string

    After wrapping the balloon, cut the end of the string to separate it from the roll.

    Hands cutting a piece of twine from the roll after wrapping a balloon with the twine.

  6. Tape end of string to balloon lip

    Use a small piece of painter’s tape to attach string to the lip of the balloon. This helps keep the string in place when you add the glue.

    Three heart-shaped balloons covered in dry twine.

  7. Find a mixing container for the glue

    Locate a disposable cup or other container for mixing the glue and water.

    Hand holding a mid-sized bottle of Aleene's Original Tacky Glue, which will be used to make DIY Twine Hearts.

  8. Pour Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue into container

    Add Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue to the mixing container. Because the glue is thick, it’s easier to pour if you remove the entire cap.

    Pour a good amount of glue into the container, especially if you’re making more than one twine heart. However, if you run low, you can always mix up another batch.

    Pouring Aleene's Tacky Glue into a cup.

  9. Add water to thin glue mixture

    Because Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue is thick, add water to thin the glue. There’s no precise amount of water to add. I added about 1 part water to 5 parts glue. I wanted it to be a bit runny, so that the glue was dripping off the mixing stick.

    Pouring water into a cup that contains Aleene's Tacky Glue.

  10. Mix glue and water thoroughly

    Use a stir stick to mix the glue and water combination. I used a painter’s stick. Keep stirring until the glue and water are thoroughly mixed.

    Stir stick covered in glue after mixing a cup of Aleene's Tacky Glue with water to thin the mixture.

  11. Use foam brush to coat balloon with glue mixture

    Dip a foam brush into the glue mixture and then cover the string with glue. This step will get messy, so you may want to cover your workspace and wear gloves.

    Hand applying glue to a twine-covered balloon using a foam brush.

  12. Thoroughly coat string with glue

    Saturate the string with the glue mixture. Don’t leave any part of the string dry. Add more glue so that it soaks through to the back side of the string.

    Hands using a foam brush to coat a twine-wrapped balloon with a glue mixture. Drips of glue have landed on the table because it's a messy process.

  13. Attach pipe cleaners to string at balloon neck

    Tie string to pipe cleaners (also known as chenille stems) at the neck of the balloon. The pipe cleaners make it easier to hang the balloons, which aids in the drying process.

    Hands tying a pipe cleaner to the lip of the balloon to facilitate hanging the glue-covered hearts for drying.

  14. Hang to balloons to dry for about 2 days

    Using the pipe cleaners, hang up the balloons to dry. I hung the balloons from a wire wreath form. Other objects would work too, such as a hanger or a stick. If hanging multiple wet balloons, leave space between them.

    Because the twine is saturated with glue, it may take a couple days to dry. Mine took two days. After about a day and a half, I flipped the balloons over so they were sitting on top of the wire wreath form. This helped the top part of the heart to dry.

    Three heart-shaped balloons covered in glue-soaked twine hanging to dry.

  15. After completely dry, pop balloon

    Wait until the twine has dried completely before popping the balloon. If the twine is still wet, the deflating balloon can cause the heart to cave in. This isn’t a problem once the string has thoroughly dried.

    Hands using a sharp point to poke a hole in the balloon wrapped with twine after the glue mixed dried.

  16. Poke more holes in the balloon

    Keep popping more holes in the balloon. Because the balloon is glued to the twine, pieces of latex will remain stuck in place after you pop the holes.

    Hands popping holes in the balloon inside a DIY Twine Heart.

  17. Use tweezer to pick out balloon pieces

    This is the tedious step, but it’s not bad. Take a pair of craft tweezers and start removing small pieces of latex. You’ll pluck out lots and lots of small pieces.

    Some pieces may be harder to remove. Try pushing them into the center or scrape them off with the sharp end of the tweezers. Don’t give up; the latex eventually comes off. I listened to an audio book to pass the time.

    Once you remove the balloon pieces, you’re ready to display your twine heart decorations.

    Hands using a tweezer to remove pieces of the popped balloon from the inside of DIY Twine Hearts.

Pin to Save Project

Three twine heart decorations (one red, one pink, and one tan) hanging above a bouquet of white roses wrapped in a pink scarf. Pinterest graphic contains the text "Easy DIY Project" and ikorncrafts.com.

You can hang your twine hearts or display them on a table or shelf. You can even wrap them with fairy lights.

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DIY Twine Hearts Project Video

Easy DIY Twine Hearts

Another Twine Project

Learn how I made DIY Twine Trees in this blog post.

Trio of DIY Twine Christmas Trees, a Glass Tree, a small artificial pine tree, and a Christmas pitcher with 3 pine trees.

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