I love reusing paper to make decorative garland!  You can do it too – it’s a no cost way to add a little festiveness anywhere in your home!

What to use for paper without a cost?  Examples of things I have used in the past include old book pages, old sheet music, vintage maps, paint swatches, vintage playing cards, Terrain shopping bags, Trader Joes grocery bags, comic books, newspaper, cookbook pages, coffee filters…basically, anything made of paper!

I always have plenty of old books, maps, and sheet music on hand for projects.  Today, I’m using sheet music to create a super easy heart garland.  I am choosing to use it as is – black and white.  But the paper used can be embellished in a variety of ways before the garland shapes are cut.

For hearts, a pretty variation would be to use a pink watercolor wash on the paper before cutting the shapes.  I’ve also done this with gold paint.  For a vintage look, the paper can be ‘aged’ using coffee or tea – just leave the sheet in the liquid until desired color is reached and dry completely before using.

For my heart garland, I made a cardboard template in the size I wanted and used it to cut out the estimated number of hearts I thought I would need.  To add a little sparkle, I brushed a little bit of clear glitter paint randomly on the hearts after they were cut out.  You may choose to use spray glitter for this purpose (or, at the holidays, flocking).

For a sturdier garland, glue the sheet music to pieces of cardboard before cutting out the shapes.  I didn’t choose to do so since I wanted the hearts to flutter and I didn’t plan on saving them.

After the glitter is dry, I string my hearts onto twine.  I don’t measure the space in between each heart, but rather add them randomly.  I use a small paper hole punch to put holes in the hearts and string them onto a length of twine – adding a knot front and back of each heart to keep them in place.

I’m using a natural twine, but if adding color, a red and white baker’s twine would be cute!  Thread or embroidery twine can also be used.  Fishing line is also an option when making garland – to make it unnoticeable –a string of floating hearts.

In general, the smaller the shapes you use, the more strands of garland you may want to put together.  Multiple strings of little mini hearts are adorable…a string of little white lights can be added as well!

Heart garland is pretty versatile and doesn’t need to be used exclusively for Valentine’s Day.  X and O shapes are another great choice for a Valentine’s garland.  As an alternative, other shapes that can be used for paper garland are birds, letters, numbers, stars, trees, geometric shapes, shells, etc.  With Easter on its way, you can choose to make little bunny shapes!  If you have children, make some egg shapes and have them decorate each one like an Easter egg before stringing the garland!

Cutting flat shapes out of paper is a super simple way to make a garland and can be created with materials you have at home.  I hope I have inspired you to make some of your own!

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie