How-To's Day: Upcycled Paper Heart Garland

Looking for a fun way to utilize brightly colored papers you have in your stash?

This Heart Garland is a great way to get ready for Valentines day and utilize/ clean up your paper stash. It can also be used as an outdoor party decoration for wedding showers!

I punched hearts out of all types of paper. Maps, Magazine Cards, Graph Paper- Just about anything! My favorite is this CALARTS publication that is above. When it came in the mail I was super excited for the pages :) The layout design is really awesome and it is printed dark with colorful- almost neon graphics.  It makes super awesome graphic hearts once punched. 

First thing is first- you need a Heart Punch.

I used Fiskars - Squeeze Punch - Extra Large - Heart - That's Amore for this project and yesterday I punched a ton of assorted hearts to start with:

They make awesome confetti too! Use them scattered around to share the love or also you can glue them on to other projects to make them more Valentine's Day themed.

Sewing on paper is really easy. If you haven't tested out sewing on paper, this project is a super great way to test the waters :)

First start with your heart and start your needle down the middle.  You can back stitch or just leave the ends loose until you knot the string at the end:

After you get to the bottom end of the heart with your needle down, position the middle of the next heart up to the bottom of the starter heart. Stitch into the second heart and work your way down the heart until you are at the very end point with the needle down.

Here is positioning the third heart to continue with the chain:

Continue this method until the garland is whatever length you wish OR you run out of hearts. 

I made my garland out of 100 individual hearts which makes it just over 8' long. (For other lengths:110= ~9' 120= 10') After completing the stitching I made double knots in the string right before & after the heart as well as at the end of a 4"-6" string tail before and after the stitched hearts.

Here is what it looks like once sewn:

I love, Love, LOVE HEARTS! When Facebook started the <3 hearts emoticons I was stoked and I still can't stop using them (Over using them- if I am speaking honestly) on ever comment for everything.  When it comes to a shape- I think heart trumps all.  How can you not love hearts?!? To soak up more of my heart obsession check out my "Heart Board" here.

Well, off to share my heart with Kevy-

XOXO, KC