This is a really simple garland I did today for Amelia's wall. I've been meaning to decorate it with beautiful prints and watercolors and I even got the frames but unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to order/print/make and that bare wall was beginning to drive me crazy. Today while we were playing 'name the color' with scraps of color paper I took out the scissors and started cutting shapes for her to name. The shape that stood the most for her was the heart. She could recognise the colors a little bit easier on them than on any other shape (not sure why?) so we ended up with lots and lots of little hearts that I didn't want to throw away.
I started with a piece of cardboard and a pen. I drew a small heart and a slightly larger one and cut them out. Next I traced them on every piece of paper that I had. I intentionally tried not to trace them properly so I would end up with different ones as I think it looks prettier and makes it a little more personal.
Once I was done tracing I simply started cutting. Again, trying to not be exact and trying to modify every heart's shape. A couple turned out amazing, others not so much so I had to trim them a little bit to get them to look better. This step was the one that kind of slowed me down (if you can call 4 minutes slowing down) because my scissors where acting stubborn and also Amelia wanted to go take a nap ;)
The next step was simply glueing them together with a little bit of glue stick. I chose to mix them and tried to make the colors clash so it would pop out a little bit more. Arrange them in the order you're going to hang them and then turn them arround. Get ready to attach them to the yarn.
I whipped out my handy dandy glue dots (I love them!) and sticked them on the back of the paper hearts, once I attached the yarn carefully leaving around 2 inches between them (give or take). I soon noticed that my yarn would not stay put and would curl up again so when I turned the garland around, the hearts would turn with it. My solution to this was to put on a little weight on the back of the hearts so it would make them stay where I wanted. I did so by adding a couple of cardboard squares to the back of the hearts using the same glue dots and made sure that the hearts were not bending back. *For future reference: I would think of making the hearts in a heavier material like cardstock or even cardboard.
This is the end result! I intentionally made a small one so when I eventually get around to hanging up all the prints we have laying around I can still hang it there. Amelia loves her heart garland and actually laid in her crib for hours pointing and screaming at it (homegirl does NOT like staying in her crib unless she has to). She giggles every time I mention the garland so Im pretty sure it was a success. And the best of all? It took only 15 minutes!
This is the end result! I intentionally made a small one so when I eventually get around to hanging up all the prints we have laying around I can still hang it there. Amelia loves her heart garland and actually laid in her crib for hours pointing and screaming at it (homegirl does NOT like staying in her crib unless she has to). She giggles every time I mention the garland so Im pretty sure it was a success. And the best of all? It took only 15 minutes!