Valentine’s Day Yarn Heart Garland
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I haven’t done a lot of decorating for Valentine’s Day in the past, but for some reason I feel like getting into it more this year. I’m having a lot of fun making a few new things to put around the house. I’m loving the red, pink, and white. I’m also loving the yarn and pompoms because not only are they bright and colorful, they also just look cozy and warm. Perfect for winter holidays. It doesn’t hurt that this garland coordinates well with the pompom wreath I’ve been using for years. I’ve got some other pompom ideas in the works as well, so stay tuned!
I rarely do anything different to our mantel except for at Christmas time. There has been a TV there since we moved in, so I’ve kept a row of candle holders on either side of the speaker for almost that whole time. A garland is perfect because it hangs low and doesn’t interfere with anything ON the mantel. While I was at it I decided to do a little something different up there as well though. It was fun to mix it up for once. Thanks to this blog, I might be doing that a lot more often!
This project was made entirely from things I already had, but none of it should be difficult to find. I started out not even knowing what I was going to string the garland on, and then the kids found some different kinds of ribbon for me to try out.
Supplies:
Yarn
Cardboard
Heart template
Scissors
Pencil
Glue/tape
Thread
Ribbon/string
The yarn is very basic, and I was thrilled to find that I had it in all of the colors I needed. I have lots of different types and textures, but I opted to use the same kind. Craft stores have tons of different types of yarn and color options.
I ended up using a pretty velvet ribbon. I’ve had it since the days when I was making little girl hair bows (I miss those days), and I just recently found it again. I had envisioned a grosgrain ribbon, but I couldn’t find any that worked color-wise. So velvet it is!
For the hearts, any piece of relatively stiff cardboard will work. Amazon box, cereal box, etc. Something that isn’t too difficult to cut.
Here’s what I did!
The first thing I did was cut off one side of a cardboard box. I cut a heart out of a piece of paper that I could use as a template. Remember when you learned to cut hearts in elementary school by first folding a piece of paper so you would get it perfectly symmetrical? That’s what I did. I wasn’t sure how many hearts I needed to fill out my garland, so I traced as many as would fit on the cardboard and cut them out. For reference, my hearts ended up being almost 4” wide.
Once I had all of the hearts cut out, I started wrapping them in yarn. I put a little glue on the cardboard and pressed the yarn onto it. You could use tape instead of glue if you prefer. It’ll be completely covered, so you won’t see it. There really wasn’t a rhyme or reason to my wrapping; I just started and kept going in all directions until each heart was completely covered. I was careful to make sure that the yarn wasn’t likely to slip each time I wrapped it, and I pulled it tight each time.
To finish off each heart, I cut off a little extra yarn and tied a knot around one of the strands on the back of the heart. The knot made it the whole thing feel nice and secure.
To make the pompoms, I used my trusty pompom maker. I know there are ways to make one them of cardboard, but this set is one of my favorite craft tools. I used the second to smallest size, and it’s perfect. Small enough that making the pompoms went quickly, but also still a substantial size. Because I had nine hearts, I made ten pompoms so that I could start and end with them. I left the tails on them so that I could easily tie them onto the ribbon.
At this point I still wasn’t sure how many I needed, so I lined everything up to see how long it would actually be. I wanted this garland to fit across our mantel, so it couldn’t be too long. When I first started this project I was afraid I was going to be short some hearts, but as it turned out it actually could have ended up being too long. It’s all in the spacing. I was confident that it was going to work out, so I decided to go ahead and tie everything on.
The pompoms were easy to tie on, but there was a little more work involved in tying on the hearts. I cut off small pieces of thread and worked one end under a strand on the back of each heart. I tied a double knot as tightly as I could around the ribbon. Once I had everything tied on I cut the excess thread/yarn off. This is where I learned that the polyester thread I first used wasn’t the best choice. Some of my knots came loose, and my hearts fell off. So I grabbed some cotton thread and tied some very tight knots that are much more secure.
As it turns out, I tied everything closer together than I had originally envisioned, but I like it. I hung it up with tape, which is holding so far. If that doesn’t work, my backup plan is Command hooks.
Let me know if you end up making your own garland. I would love to see it!
