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Dangling Garland Valentines!
Published 01.28.2010 | Permanent Link | Comments (7)
By Brenda Ponnay
I've been on a bit of a garland kick lately so I decided it might be fun to incorporate my new love of sewing paper into a valentine! I like to call it the Amazing Expanding Valentine! Mostly because when you lift it out of an envelope it just grows and grows and grows. What fun it would be to receive and then hang up in a dreary winter window, don't you think?
Here's how you can make them too:
First you need to cut a bunch of hearts. I set up a smorgasbord of hearts in all different colors and sizes and let the kids pick and choose what they would like from the stacks of paper hearts. One by one each child would make her selection and stand beside me while I sewed the hearts together. They all loved this part. Some of the littler ones even sat in my lap.
Of course if you are not the sewing type, you don't have to sew the hearts together. You could use yarn or string and glue the string between two paper hearts. This would accomplish the same effect, minus the fun of hearing your sewing machine munch through paper.
After you have a string of five or six hearts now you can decorate!
Just set out some glitter, glue, sequins, stickers or stamps and let your kids go crazy.
When they're done, and the glue has dried, you'll have a masterpiece pretty enough to hang or mail off to Grandma!
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
Disclaimer
This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (7):
isaida said:
Oh my gosh - Bug looks like a big girl in this picture! They grow so fast! Sigh....
Posted on January 28, 2010 13:25
Jeannette said:
I saw the circles you did for Bug's birthday and wanted to use hearts instead for my daughter's birthday in February. I received an unrequested sewing machine for Christmas and am very itimidated! Do you just feed the next heart after the first one or do you need to pin them first like fabric? Is that a silly question?
Brenda says: Just sew them! No pinning needed. :) I even left some stitching between some of them for more dangliness. Others I sewed close together. Feed them in and don't worry! They'll turn out great!
Posted on January 28, 2010 15:47
Tina said:
Love it! We're going to have to try that, I know my two boys will find that to be fun, and I want to do some Valentine-y decorating to brighten up the place.
Posted on January 28, 2010 21:58
BeachMama said:
Another awesome craft. I loved your circles too, now hearts would definitely brighten up the winter blues here.
Posted on January 28, 2010 22:01
hot coffee said:
This is a great craft for valentine day. great work.
Posted on January 29, 2010 04:39
JaeElle said:
Bug's shirt matches the craft! How cute!
Posted on January 29, 2010 09:09
Misty said:
Thanks for the idea. My girls and I had a great time making these. We recycled some hearts my Kindergartner made and took to school for 100 day! We had a fun time making this craft and it really did brighten up our house.
Posted on January 30, 2010 17:19