Valentine Heart Gift Boxes

Valentine Heart Boxes by Annie Williams - Main

Valentine’s Day is only a little over a week away, so I’ve been busy making care packages for my nieces and nephews.  These heart boxes are super easy to make and the perfect size for a handful of Dove chocolates (any more than a handful of chocolates and my brothers would kill me 🙂 ).  What’s also nice is that you can leave them plain for little boys and they still look great, or you can dress them up for little girls who love anything bright and sparkly.

Valentine Heart Boxes by Annie Williams - Template

If you’ve never used one of the embossing boards from Crafter’s Companion, here is the general setup.  I’ve placed the Ulti-Boxes Board into the grooves of the Ultimate Tool for a little more stability, but they can also be used alone.  Simply place a piece of cardstock on top of the board and score around your desired shape.  The large template shown here is the one I used to make these boxes.

Valentine Heart Boxes by Annie Williams - Pieces

Once you’ve traced the shape onto your cardstock, you’ll just need to cut it out around the edges and fold on the score lines.  Liquid or strong tape runner adhesive on the four tabs is all that is needed to hold the boxes together.  You’ll notice that I also cut a small wedge out of each half-heart at the top of the picture…this allows you to criss-cross the two heart shapes to close the top of the box once you’ve filled it.

Valentine Heart Boxes by Annie Williams - Coloring

To take my niece’s heart box to the next level, I also heat-embossed some flower images on watercolor paper and colored them with my Spectrum Aqua markers.  I tried to show my method here for watercoloring some quick dimension – start by adding your darkest color to the shadow areas, pull out the color a bit with a lighter shade, and then blend it out to the edges with a damp waterbrush.  The blue wash around the outside was created by scribbling the marker onto a non-porous surface, picking up a bit of diluted color with a wet brush, and gently outlining.  A small die was then used to cut a panel for each side of the box.

Valentine Heart Boxes by Annie Williams - Detail

A set of white heart halves were adhered to the top of the box, followed by strings of rhinestones to the edges to add to the princess-y feel.  Whether simple or embellished, I think these little boxes will be a hit!

Spectrum Aqua Markers Used: Crimson, Blossom, Aquamarine, Yellow