YES! This is quick and easy to follow pattern. It has been used many times as a a cute kids DIY craft project! AND a  (great tip for Grandmas – kids love receiving a Love Monster – as you can see by the happy faces of Dawn Buel Fleischman‘s grand children!

How to add text on a toy?

The Valentine’s Love Monster pattern includes 5 fun Valentine’s love sayings to guide you with embroidering a message on your Monster, but you can add whatever wording you want….

1. Hand Embroidered Text:

These hand-stitched words on Valentine’s Love Monsters were sewn by Lori LeBlanc – as you can see she has personalised the monsters by

adding the names
to make them EXTRA SPECIAL!

Don’t want to hand-sew text?

👍No problem!👍

There lots of NO-SEW TEXT OPTIONS like fabric markers, fabric paint, adhesive felt, or even packs of pre-cut iron-on letters (available at most craft stores).

Here are some examples of “NO-SEW” text:

3. Fabric Paint Text:

Sandy Thurlow used fabric paint to create this cute design on the tummy heart. She made her own felt eyes, and you could easily make a felt mouth and glue it on, too. No hand sewing needed that way (except for closing the stuffing hole, of course.)

4. Fabric Marker Text:

Fabric Markers come in many varieties. You can even use a laundry pen! There are lots of tips about the types of fabric and pens you can use, in this post about making a signature / autograph toys, plus lots of cute examples. 

Look at the cute custom nametag on this Love Monster by Cara Wolf-Vaughn. She used a fabric marker to add her dog’s name!

5. Felt Shapes and Felt Text:

Craft stores and online shops sell felt with adhesive already on the back. Just cut out some letters and stick them onto the toy. Regular felt works, too. You can sew on the shapes or use fabric glue.

Look at the cute felt faces on these Love Monsters by Sandy Boyd. This is a great example of making Valentine’s Love Monster pattern without any hand sewing except closing the stuffing gap. Get kids involved and let them cut out their own shapes.

~> checkout that curly moustache!

6. Pre-cut Iron-on letters:

Packs of pre-cut iron-on letters have been available in craft stores since the 1970s, but now they come in lots of different styles! You can buy individual letters that look like fancy embroidered patches, glitter letters, and the traditional fuzzy “flocked” kind used to add sayings to t-shirts. The letters most often come in packs of the entire alphabet, with extras of certain common letters. They’re affordable, really easy to use, and stand out well, as you can see below.

A Love Monster with pre-cut, iron-on letters spelling out “Hug Me” on the tummy.

 

How to use iron-on letters!

The admin of our Funky Friends Factory Pattern Fan Club made this reduced size (70%) Love Monster way back in 2017. She used iron-on letters from a craft store and took some photos of the process.

 

Here’s an example of fancy iron-on letters!

I KNOW this isn’t a Love Monster, BUT…
it ‘s a great example of using pre-cut letters
to add text to a toy.

 

Lindsey Mortimer purchased these embroidered letters (they’re like patches) and ironed them onto Ben BEGINNER Bear ’s tummy. She did some extra stitches afterwards for added safety.

 

7. Add text with Vinyl Cutting Machine letters

If you have a vinyl cutting machine, you can also cut custom letters yourself for heat transfer vinyl (HTV), as Debra Phelps Prychun did here.

Other decorating ideas…

Let small kids cut out a felt heart or just draw a heart on Love Monster’s tummy (he won’t mind!). Use the Valentine’s Love Monster to make a quick memory toy or keepsake from clothes! (The big “no-seam” tummy on this toy can easily accommodate a t-shirt logo or a photograph transferred onto fabric). Ribbons, ric-rac, glitter glue, or any other craft supply you have for making Valentines can work (just test on a fabric scrap first). Here you can see that Janet Conlon has decorated her Love Monster

🌼with daisy-trim!🌼

Love monster is great for a Halloween toy too!🎃

According to Jo Tracy Tsep‘s 3 year old – all you need to do is just add a 3rd (purple) eye!

AND last BUT not LEAST!!!

Jo Tracy Tsep sewed 2 Valentine’s LOVE Monsters – but she sewed theem EXTRA SMALL so she could put them on her Christmas tree as decorations!!!.

In case you missed the links above – the Valentine’s Love Monster Toy Pattern is available to download from the website NOW!

I can’t wait to see the Funky Friends you sew this Valentine’s Day!

 bye for now,

Pauline ❤️