Pretty Paper Heart Garland

I love Valentine's Day. Truly, what's not to love? Pink and red hearts, homemade cards, sparkly sugar cookies, delicious dark chocolate (honestly - leave the milk chocolate for Christmas). Even as a girl, before I had my own valentine to love, I looked forward to the day where we took school time to create cards with stamps, stickers, and cut-outs. And then we had a whole afternoon to distribute them while eating heart-shaped rice krispie treats. Fantastic!

So, to kick off this Valentine's weekend, I wanted share these fun paper heart garlands I've been working on. (And if you're wondering, no purchases were required to make these. Still on my Use-it-Up Challenge!)

You need:

String (thread is too thin)

A large sewing needle

Paper of choice (cardstock worked nicely)

Scissors or a heart punch

Letter stamps (or you can free-hand)

Four paper doilies or other pretty paper

Also necessary:

Twilight (to watch while you're working on these)

1. Cut or punch out the number of hearts you want. If you're making the "Love" garland, you only need five to go on either side of each letter. Fold the heart in half, then push the needle through, as shown. When you pull the string through, it should make a little "stitch" in the middle of the heart.

2. Make your "Love" letters by pushing the needle through and behind the doily. Be sure and do this near the top of the paper, so it doesn't want to flip. If you want to just make the heart garland, skip this and keep stringing those hearts!

3. Another option with the heart garland is to bunch the paper hearts together. This creates more of a petal look and also is very pretty. Once you're finished, you can go and alternate the direction of the hearts and bunch them as you like.

And there you go - instant Valentine glam!