Easy Valentine Garland

I enjoyed the Junk Mail & Scrap Paper Valentine that I made last week so much, that I wanted to make something else!  But time and space for lots of supplies are things that I just don’t have, so many of the things I do have to be simple–but I’m okay with that because I love simplicity.

This week I had the great idea of making a garland out of my empty Coke boxes–after all, they’re white and red and very Valentine-y.  Unfortunately, my heart punch couldn’t handle the cardboard, so I had to revise the design.  And I like the result.  Here is what I did…

Supplies:

• 12 – Cardboard, Cardstock, or Colored Cards
• Colored Paper of Choice
• Glue
• Heart Punch
• 12 – Heart-Shaped Doilies
• Hole Punch
• Ribbon or String
• Scissors
• 1 – Sheet of Tin Foil

 Start by punching hearts out of your paper and foil.  You’ll need 12 hearts in total, so I punched out four of each.

Glue the hearts that you just punched out to the front of the doilies.  The hearts won’t be exactly the same size and shape as the heart on the doilies, but that’s okay.

Glue your doily hearts to the pieces of cardboard, cardstock, or in my case cards.  ***TIP: Put the glue on the card and then place the doily.  It’s a lot easier than trying to put glue on the back of the doily!***

Punch holes in both sides of each card so that you can string them together.  I tried to punch in about the middle, but I really wasn’t exact about where my holes were, and it was probably different on every card.  You can absolutely be more exact with this, but I like to keep it easy!

You also need to cut the ribbon, yarn, or string.  I cut my pieces to about six inches, but it turns out that this was too long.  You can probably get away with about four inches.

Tie a loop in the outside hole of the first and last card so that you can hang your garland.  Then tie each of the cards together using your ribbon or string.

Finally, enjoy your new garland!  Please excuse the messy background–this is hanging on my supply shelves in my dining room/craft room.  I couldn’t hang it anywhere else because we might still have Christmas stuff up…

What do you think?  Do you like it?  What would you do differently?  I can’t wait to hear everyone’s ideas!