Paper Heart Garland

Before I move onto my Paper Heart project...HAPPY GROUND HOG'S DAY!!!

I kind of forgot about it, actually. Here in the middle of the USA we are freezing our hineys off. It's kind of hard to think about Spring. Not sure if Ol' Punxsutawney (let's see what my spell check makes of THAT!) Phil saw his shadow or not, but it's going to be Winter for a bit longer here in Nebraska!

Anyway...with all the blowing snow, ice and Penguin temps, we fought our way through a SECOND snow day, today! I may be crazy, but I kind of like snow days. When I was little, they meant baking cookies, warm fires in the family room, cozy blankets and watching movies with my mom. Thanks, Mom! Of course, I was an only child and way more tame than our monsters! But we've had a fun couple of days here...back to the grind stone tomorrow...

Right. Paper Hearts! I'll start at the end result and work my way backwards...

Hmmm...they're kind of hard to see in this tiny photo. But I've got them hanging from our shelves in the living room. I still have to put up our "old" Valentine's decorations, so the shelves look pretty bland right now. I can also do a tutorial later on the art of crafty blanket throwing! Sorry about that mess on the love seat!

Okay...now here's a close up:

I love how cute and simple these are. I used regular pink, red and white construction paper. I cut 1 inch strips length-wise. Then I folded each strip in half and used a pencil to roll each end into the center fold. You get these tight little curls at first, but then they loosened way up. At first I was kind of dissappointed, but the look kind of grew on me. I suspect that if you used a toothpick and maybe thinner strips they would stay curled up more.

Anyway! I used a thread and needle to "sew" through that center fold. Then I used double-sided tape between the two curls to hold the heart in place and attach it to the thread. Now, I've seen these garlands on many blogs, but I specifically used the instructions on How About Orange.

So now we've got these cool Paper Hearts hanging out in our living room!