String of Hearts

I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’m kinda diggin Valentines Day this year. Well maybe that’s going a little too far. I guess it would be more correct to say that I’m lovin the V-day crafts. And I know I said I would post a project using the glass cylinders I found at the rummage sale, but all of those dang craft emails that fill my inbox each morning make it soooo hard to stick to a plan! So thanks to Curbly.com and their V-day craft round-up, I bring you a lovely little paper heart garland!

Now although I first saw this project on Curbly, it originated with a HowAboutOrange tutorial that can be found here. I decided to string mine horizontally instead of vertically and added a few more details to help you out.

  So let’s look at what you will need:

·         A couple sheets of card stock in various reds, pinks and whites

·         A paper slicer or scissors

·         A knitting needle (or a smooth pen or pencil)

·         A needle and thread  

Begin by slicing you’re paper into ½ inch wide strips along the length of the paper.

Now you’ll fold each strip in half.

Then using the knitting needle (or pen), give each half of the strip a loose curl as though you were curling ribbon for a gift. This step will help you to have a nice smooth curl without any boxy folds or kinks.

Now you’re going to curl the first side of the strip tightly around the knitting needle.

And then repeat for the other side. You should now have two tight curls and a rough heart shape.

Now, carfully loosen up the curls until both sides touch in the center to form your heart. The looser the curls the bigger the overall size will be.

Continue curling all of your strips until you’ve got a nice pile of hearts and then it’s time to string them together using the thread and needle.  

You can string them as close or far apart as you want. It mostly depends on how many hearts you want to curl and how long you’re garland needs to be.

And once again I resort to decorating my kitchen window opening thingy.

Awww… so lovely!