{origami hearts} and goodie bags

Lately I've been thinking about Easter. Last year I put together a few Easter baskets for some of my family and I'm contemplating whether or not do the same this year.  As a little gift giving inspiration I decided to look over the pics I took of the goodie bags I recently put together for Valentine's Day.  It totally put me in a crafty mood, so in case it does the same for you here's a peek at what I did ; )

To make the origami hearts (with cute little pockets) that I attached to the front of the bags, you'll need the following:

• pretty paper (both sides will show)
• bone folder
• paper trimmer
• your favorite paper adhesive

If you want to make your hearts the same size as shown in these photos, trim your paper to 2 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall. Below is a picture of each of the folding steps.

The steps:  Start with your rectangle.  Fold your paper in half length wise.  Unfold.  Fold in half width wise.  Unfold, and then fold the right half to the center length wise.  Next fold the left half also to the center length wise.  Unfold the right half only.  Fold the now open right half to the first crease mark length wise (not back to the center).  Turn upside-down.  Fold the top half to the center width wise.  Fold the bottom half to the center width wise.  There will now be 4 flaps to fold down - one for each corner of the top of the heart.  To do this take each of the four corners and fold them backward to where each corresponding flap ends.  Secure each of these corner flaps down with your paper adhesive.  Turn your heart around and it is now facing up with a pocket in the front.  All done.

These little pocket hearts would be perfect for holding a small photo, love note, or pretty embellishment. In the examples here, I added in a hot cinnamon candy heart.

For inside the goodies bags, I filled these cute cellophane bags with different things for each person....so some have candies, chocolates, peeps dipped in chocolate (my favorite!), single serving red velvet flavored ground coffee, a Starbucks gift card, road trip music (since we like to travel together), or local loose leaf tea.  I mailed a couple out, and the ones for my mom and little sister were given to them on Valentine's Day when they picked me up for a weekend road trip to Long Beach.  I have a few super fun pics from that trip that I'll share in the future.  I hope you enjoyed this post and my goodie bag inspiration.  Happy weekend to you!  XO

P.S. You can watch a video of how I put my Valentines together (attached to the front of the goodie bags pictured) HERE.