Day 11 Valentine Countdown-Paper Hearts

Whew! Day 11 already!? Thank you all for following us on our fun countdown. We thought we'd do something a little different today with a really fun paper heart.
To make these hearts, I cut 1" strips out of fun valentine papers. Each page I cut 4 strips that were the same size. This is because to make one "strip" we put 2 strips back to back so that we don't see the plain white back of the paper. And you need 2 of these "sets of strips" because you need one for each side of the heart. The length doesn't really matter. Whatever length you start with, you will make each successive set of strips be 1" shorter. For my larger heart my first set of strips was 12" long. So, I cut 4 strips that length, out of the same paper. Then, the next page I cut 4 strips 11" long. Another option would be to make each set 2" shorter than the last. It would leave bigger spaces between the strips. You will see above that there is a white strip under each patterned/colored strip. This is actually a matching strip that is on it's back. This is so that you will see the pattern/color from the outside of the heart and the inside, otherwise you would see a lot of white.
You will set these in 2 piles from longest to shortest. These are each one side of the heart.
Place these 2 strips together with the shortest pieces on the inside. Then you punch a hole through the bottom (where all the papers are lined up) and attach a brad. Another option here would be to run a ribbon through your hole on the bottom (or numerous ribbons) and tie it off either with a big bow, or just a not and leave all the ends dangling! I used pearl brads to attach my strips together.
The top part of the heart is a bit trickier to manipulate, but not hard. You just line the top ends up together and turn this stack of ends down by turning both sides to the inside of the heart. You can also sandwich a ribbon, or whatever you want to hang the heart from, in the center of these papers. Again, punch a hole and add a brad. As with everything we do there are so many ways you can change these up and embellish them. We would love to see what other people can do with this idea. Please add pictures to our flikr group!
Rebecca

We are linking to Blue Cricket Design