Heart Garland Tutorial

I posted this tutorital last Valentines Day but I thought I would post it again for kicks and giggles!!
FIRST AND FOREMOST THIS IS EASY PEASY! 

And trust me it is. I don't do difficult things. 

So let's get this party started!!

First pick out a old book, or go to your local thrift store and pick one out. Keep in mind what kind of pages you want to display. White. Antique. Big letters. Look for something that is out of the ordinary. Mine had big blue letters that I thought were adorable. 

I'm sure it's illegal in some states to do this to books, so please be cautious!  I almost felt bad when I was checking this out a lady next to me said "Oh good job on that find, I'm sure you will enjoy it. I did"

I just couldn't break her heart to tell her that I was going to tear it to shreds as soon as I got home.  I'm sure it is a great book. Let's just say I am a super speed reader. 

2. Tear out your pages.  My book was itty bitty and not a regular 8.5x11. But I'm guessing you could get a least one heart out of each page. So see we aren't ripping the entire book out! 

Cut your strips into 1 inch thick strips. 

See how cute those letters are?  I made sure to have those be on my tops of my hearts, since you can't see the letters really in the center of the hearts.  

3. After you have all your strips break them out into 4 groups.  

1. 1 strip for your center

2. 2 strips for top piece

3. 2 strips for your middle piece

3. 2 strips for your bottom piece. 

So depending on your size of paper you will leave numbers 1 & 2 above (so three strips total) alone!  Don't cut them. So let's just say your strips are all 7 inches long.  You will take your middle and bottom pieces and cut them. So your middle piece will be cut 1 inch down to 6 inches. And your bottom piece will be cut down 2 inches. Make sense?  So you know have three different sizes of strips all one inch difference.  

Grab your smallest strip (or the bottom strip and fold the end together. And hold it.

Grab your middle piece and to the same thing wrapping it over the top of your bottom piece. Hold it.

Finally grabbing your top piece and placing it around the other two. So you know have three strips with the ends all together.

Don't mind my nasty baby hands!! 

Then staple it together. So you know have 1/2 of the heart done. Stay with me now!!

So it should look like this. I stapled both my sides of the hearts closer to the top of middle strip. Then cut the bottom so it was a straight line.  Then at the top I cut it so it was "Even Stephen" (sorry had to throw in a little Amyism) with the sides of the heart. This picture doesn't show that but you can see it on the ones below.

Then grab whatever string, thread, you want to hang it by and a big needle. No worries we aren't playing nurse today you will just be using the needle for the hearts. Then simply thread it threw all your hearts. Leaving enough string/thread at the end to hang it by.

And Fancy that!! You did it!!!! Pat yourself on the back, go get a fresh diet coke and watch Nate Berkus!!  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

See wasn't so bad was it???

$60 bucks on Etsy my booty!! We can do this for nothing or $3 from DI.