Paper Heart Garland

Now, those paper hearts were so nice, of course I couldn't just let it go at one project.  Oh no no.  I saw a heart garland a friend pinned for our Valentine's Day craft party, and really liked the idea.  My kitchen window was definitely looking bare and much in need of a garland, so this seemed perfect.

Instead of felt, I decided to use the really fun pink, red, and grey scrapbook paper I'd bought for Valentine's Day... things... whatever came up... for the garland.  I made my hearts using the technique from my heart wreath (the post following this one), and instead of making the vertical chains decided to string them as a garland.  First I tried using string like the original garland pin did, but it was making me sad.  I was using a needle to poke a hole in the paper hearts and thread the string through, and I was squashing my hearts in the process.  Their nice curvy tops were getting pointy and I couldn't have that.  Cue idea #2: attaching them to ribbon in some way. I lucked out and my paper hearts were perfectly happy to stick to ribbon with a plain old glue stick.  Amazing!

My son inspecting the handiwork.  Notice the little garland below?  He made it by putting some Disney stickers on his own little strip of ribbon.  He was very pleased with himself for contributing to our holiday decor.  Also, do you spy that red rose pomander?  I'll write up a post on how to make that!

Artificial light view.  So colorful!

Supplies

• Scrapbook paper in different patterns (my garland used 5 sheets of scrapbook paper)
• Length of ribbon
• Glue stick
• Scissors or paper cutter

Directions

1. Lay out newspaper or some other protection on your work surface.  You're going to get glue everywhere.  Fair warning!
2. Create paper hearts using technique from my heart wreath post.
3. Run out some excess ribbon to tie one end, run glue along one side of ribbon, and affix tops of hearts to the ribbon.  Press firmly in place and allow to dry.  I unspooled my ribbon a bit at a time (enough to glue 5 hearts), let them sit a bit, and then unspooled more to glue 5 more.  Repeat many times.  Leave excess ribbon at each end for hanging.
4. A few of my hearts did drop off when my mom and I first (gingerly) picked up the ribbon, but I just glued those individual heart tops and held them in place against the ribbon.
5. I stuck each end of my ribbon on my kitchen curtain rod.  I cut a small piece of ribbon to tie up the center of my garland.
6. All told, making the hearts and gluing to the ribbon probably took 90 minutes total.