Paper Fabric Heart Ornaments

Hello there! It's been a while!

I'm back on my blog today to offer you a fun holiday décor project. I planned this project a year ago when I was invited to do a short feature in a Christmas show for local TV. I enjoyed both the project and the actual TV-performance (although I can't stop laughing when I see or hear a recording of myself), and yesterday when I thought about the fun I had a year ago I felt it would be a shame if I didn't share the project with a wider audience. So here it is. I hope you'll like it!

Paper Fabric Heart Ornaments

You will need:

• a piece of white cotton fabric/muslin
• an assortment of thin papers (e.g. tissue paper, paper napkins, empty teabags, tissue paper that you’ve decorated yourself with permanent markers and paint)
• basic white glue + a pot for thinning the glue
• a plastic bag or Teflon sheet to work on
• a broad paint/foam brush
• embroidery thread/yarn for the hanging loop (25 cm/10”)
• glitter glue

Making the paper fabric

1. Prepare the papers by tearing or cutting them into manageable pieces (mine were about 5 cm/2” squares).
2. Thin the glue with water: about 1 part of glue to 2 parts of water.
3. Place the fabric on your work sheet and brush a generous amount of watery glue over the whole piece.
4. Arrange the paper pieces one by one on the wet fabric and brush watery glue over each piece.
5. Let the paper fabric dry flat overnight.
6. If the paper fabric has curled up while drying you can put it between two sheets of parchment paper and press it flat with a cool iron.
7. If you wish, you can decorate the paper fabric further when it’s dry: e.g. with permanent markers, acrylic paint or ink, stamps, stencils, etc.

Making the heart ornament

1. Draw your own heart, or use the template provided below and cut out four hearts in paper fabric.
2. Fold each heart in half, right sides together.
3. Spread glue on the back of one half of a heart and stick it to the back of a corresponding half of a heart. 
4. Do the same with the remaining two hearts.
5. Place a string of glue along the join of two hearts, fold the thread to form a loop and press the loop into the glue.
6. Spread glue over the back of two joined hearts and stick them to the other two joined hearts, with the loop in between.
7. Finish the edges with glitter glue as a final touch.

Have fun!

PS: Click on the label 'Paper fabric' in the cloud to the right and you will find more posts on paper fabric.