Valentine’s Day is almost here, so with a little help from my mom I whipped up this happy heart DIY to help you spread some love any day of the year!

DIY – Dog Collar Heart Accessory

This simple DIY can be made with a few items that you can likely find laying around your house.

What you need:

• Scissors
• A few small scraps of fabric
• Needle and thread
• Elastic
• Sharpie
• Dog Collar
• Cotton stuffing (don’t have any on hand? you could always use some paper towels or tissues)
• Embroidery thread (substitute needle and thread if you don’t have any)
• Metallic paint (optional)
• Pencil with eraser (optional)

Step 1: Using a sharpie draw two small heart shapes onto your fabric. You may want to draw one on a plain piece of printer paper first and cut it out to use as a stencil.

Step 2: Cut both hearts out of your fabric.

Step 3: If you are using a plain piece of fabric then you may want to add a little Bling. By using the eraser end of your pencil you can stamp some dots of gold metallic paint onto your fabric hearts.

Step 4: Next measure the width of your dog collar, add about an inch, and cut this length out of your elastic. Once your paint is dry on your hearts you will want to sew a piece of looped elastic to the painted side with a needle and thread.

Step 5: Place your heart cutouts on top of each other (paint side up) and begin to stitch the two together using a piece of embroidery floss (or regular thread if that’s all you have). Stop stitching when you are about 3/4 of the way around.

Step 6: Stuff your heart with cotton filler (or any other stuffing you would like to use) and then stitch your heart the rest of the way shut.

Your heart collar accessory is now complete, and you can slip it onto your dog’s collar.

I don’t know about you, but I think it totally says I LOVE YOU!

If you decide not to add paint to your happy little heart, you may want to use a fun fabric instead – just like the one my mom made below.

I’m totally wearing my heart on my sleeve neck!

If you’re looking for more ways to spread a little love this year, make sure you check out my online SHOP for Valentine’s Day Greetings and more! 

The collars I am wearing in this feature are from the lovely Mattie & Margot, and they have lots of great colors that would look oh so sweet with a happy little heart on them. 

Also you can fetch the id tag I’m wearing above from Blanket ID.