Garland is a winning decoration. It's festive, simple to make, and easily adapted to any holiday or occasion. In our home, we've recently enjoyed making several types of heart garland in preparation for Valentine's Day. One of our favorites is this eye-catching version made from cardboard cereal boxes. It's interesting to look at, fun for the kids when they're happily familiar with the materials used, and hangs nicely due to the weight of the board. To make your own, follow the directions below.
Materials:
colorful cardboard packaging (we stuck, primarily, with traditional red)
pencil
scissors
adhesive (like double-stick tape, glue stick, Mod Podge, glue)
fishing line
To begin, make a heart-shaped template. Working on the back of a piece of cardboard, draw your heart and cut it out. I drew mine on the fold in order to keep my shape symmetrical.
Working on the front of your cardboard pieces, position your template over your desired area and trace around it with your pencil. Trace a second to become the flip side of your first heart. Cut on or just inside your pencil lines. Continue tracing and cutting until you have your desired number of hearts, making sure each will be double-sided.
To assemble, choose a pair of hearts and place one face down, one face up. Apply adhesive to the back side of your first heart. Position the end of your fishing line straight down the middle of the heart, from top to bottom. Press into place. Press the second heart, right side up, onto the first. (For my adhesive, I chose to use a double stick tape used in picture framing stores-leftover from a brief career as a picture framer-with one strip down the middle and one strip across). At this point, cut fishing line to desired length for hanging a series of single hearts or continue adhering hearts to the line and cut to hang when finished.
Consider:
1) Alternating the number of hearts on each line (1 to 5), grouping several lines together to hang.
2) Attaching enough hearts to hang lines from top of doorway to floor.
3) Gluing line crosswise across top of hearts to hang garland horizontally.
Megan is home preparing for Valentine's Day with her three little ones. She posts their favorite crafts at PlumPudding.
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