- wood dowel macrame kit with 6 tiny clothes pins from Dollar Tree (Yes, Dollar Tree! It’s labeled “photo hanger.”)
- 3 different prints or colored 12×12 cardstock (1 of one color, 1 of another, & 2 of your main print)- I used one pink, one gray, and two pieces of the pink & gray floral print.
- glue stick
- hot glue gun & glue
- 14 tiny clothespins- I had two of the macrame dowels so I used the 5 clothespins from that one along with the ones from the dowel I was using. Then I had a few small ones that were just a tad bigger and used one of those and a wood heart pin that I had to use on the 14th day for Valentine’s.
- ruler or grid mat- I used a grid mat which made this project very easy.
- scissors and/or
- paper slicer
- piece of cardboard at least 8″ tall and 7″ wide.
- heart template- I used a DT foam heart, but you can free hand one or download a template.
- fabric or another piece of cardstock to cover the heart
- 1.5″ ribbon for a bow
- decorative washi tape (optional)- I used a translucent gold heart print.
- paint or wood stain (optional)
- my designs- The numbers as well as the main sign design. No Cricut required!
First trace the foam heart or heart template (about 7″ tall) onto a piece of cardboard. If you’re a better artist than me (doesn’t take much for that lol), then you can freehand a heart on the cardboard. Then it cut out.
Now that your heart for the top of the Valentine’s advent calendar is assembled, you need to decorate it. I made a design that you can download to use on your own heart with or without a cutting machine. If you have a Cricut, just download the design and upload it to Design Space. You can also use my design (just click the link) that’s already uploaded, the design as well as the numbers at the correct size, ready to go. If you don’t have one, you can use the carbon copy method from this door hanger tutorial using just paper and a pencil!
For personal use only!
This design is for personal use only, not commercial use. If you’d like to share it with friends or family, feel free to use the buttons at the end of the post to share it with them on social media or send them straight to the blog. Please don’t download this image and give it to multiple people. I’d love to have them come visit the blog! This helps me to keep these free printables, PNGs, & SVGs coming to you for free! Also, the preview image of the design has my logo overlaid on them. That will not show up on your downloaded file. It is there to keep anyone from stealing and printing them straight from Google without coming here. Thanks y’all!
When using a Cricut, be sure to mirror the image to cut on HTV and iron on the fabric. If you used cardstock to cover your heart, you can use regular vinyl or different color cardstock and glue it on.
Weed the design and iron it onto the middle of the heart.
Now that the heart topper for the advent calendar is ready to go, it’s time to prep the photo hanger. Remove all of the ropes from the dowel. They will all just slip right off. If you want to leave the wood dowel as is, you can skip this section.
While the dowel dries, you can make the envelopes that will be opened every day during the Valentine’s advent season.
Each envelope will be 3×3 once they are finished.
Measure the cardstock and make a mark on each side at the 7″ point. Marking both sides makes cutting the paper perfectly straight in a paper slicer super easy. You can line both marks up on the slicer and you’ll get a perfect result every time. (If you notice in the video tutorial or photos that I marked the 6″ point ignore that! I messed up on one envelope and I’m not sure which pictures or videos it was on lol.)
When you have your envelopes cut, you can score and fold them. My paper slicer has a cutting blade and a scoring blade. It makes folding easy and even. You don’t have to have one though.
Measure and mark 3″ (on both sides) from the bottom of one of your cut pages, then 3″ above that. That will leave 1″ at the top for the little lip of the envelope.
Using the glue stick (or liquid glue) apply a strip of glue along each long side of the envelope. Then press the sides together for a moment to allow the glue to adhere them together.
Now it’s time to create numbers for each of the envelopes that you can open for each day of the Valentine’s advent season.
If you’re using your Cricut, you can simply use my already prepared design from Design Space. The “hello Valentine” and the numbers are all the correct size and ready to cut. Just click here, and you’re ready to go! I used a pretty fine glitter black cardstock paper for my numbers.
Once your numbers are cut or transferred, it’s time to glue or paint them on. Since I used cardstock, I will be giving you the instructions for that.
Decide what order you want the cardstock designs in, glue the numbers to the envelopes with a glue stick. I added a floral print between each of the gray and pink envelopes. I used my grid mat to ensure that the numbers were placed in the center of the envelopes.
It’s time to reassemble the photo hanger so that you can hang the advent calendar envelopes on the ropes. It came with six ropes to hang pictures from, but for this project we only need five to create more room. Just loop them back on the way they came. You can see how I did it in the photos below or in the video tutorial.
Hot glue the rope to the back of your heart.
Here’s a little video tutorial to help you out. By the way, I hate the way I sound! I think everyone feels that way lol!
Your Valentine’s advent calendar is ready to hang & use!
You can fill the envelopes with candy or small toys. Another great option is to use homemade coupons that your husband or children can cash in for something. For example, an extra 30 minutes before bedtime for the kiddos, and a back rub for your husband. My husband has quite a few ideas for his coupons lol!
I absolutely love the way this advent calendar worked out. It matches the pink and gray theme that I’m using this year so well. It’s absolutely adorable!

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