'have a heart' how-to...

these little 'have a heart' strings are easily made from a few items laying around the nest, they are the perfect antidote to the winter blues and best of all, do not scream "i am a valentines decoration" therefore can stay up for way longer than a few weeks in Feb!

but i must warn you before we begin, they are tres addictive, i made one a few days after Our #1 left on the 28th Dec, that little string did a peachy job of distracting my heavy heart, so i made another and another, before i knew it i had a whole chorus of them hanging in my studio looking mighty pretty.

ingredients:

* an old book, not a first addition that belongs to someone else in your nest and worth a bob or two, one that perhaps you picked up at the thrift store a while back. old books have paper which feels nice in the hands and the writing has a lovely 'tippity tapped' look about it

* a small pair of paper scissors

* sewing thread in a pretty color for your trusty sewing machine

* a small piece of left over wrapping paper or wallpaper, something bright and cheery

* some pretty tape, i used that lovely colorful Japanese tape we see everywhere but failing that, good old clear tape will do the job, just something to stick the strings up with

* a little saying either printed, typed or handwritten on some card, just a few though, not every string has one. i used 'please hold on to my heart' but i am thinking there are many other little sayings worthy of this 'how-to'

before we begin, a couple of things to note:

* the hearts are cut from two pages put together, so they have a little more sturdiness to them

* saying that, these sweeties are delicate, the strings will break easily if small hands get to them, or paws for that matter, so do hang them where they may be admired without worry

* i made my strings different lengths to add to the eclectic look, the longest being 42"/107cm and the shortest being 20"/51cm

recipe:

1. take your double thickness book page and start cutting out heart shapes, do not draw them first, just cut away not worrying about them being perfectly heart shaped. i cut hearts in three different sizes, itty bitty, medium and largish. i worked on largish first till i got the swing of cutting hearts free hand and then moved to the smaller ones.

keep them in separate sized piles if you wish for your strings to look like mine.

2. cut a few itty bitty, medium and largish, double sided hearts out of your colorful patterned paper, just one or two, unless you prefer a more colorful look, which actually would look rather splendid and if so, then cut away!

3. take your little hearts carefully over to your trusty sewing machine, making sure you have plenty of spare thread at the top for hanging the string, begin feeding your little paper hearts through the machine until you have a nice length of hearts. finish off your first string by leaving a lovely long thread as tails. continue this process with the rest of your paper hearts, being sure to occasionally pop in a colored heart amongst the book page hearts and on the bottom of some, before you finish, attach your little printed or handwritten note.

4. when each string is done, tape them up as you go, therefore avoiding getting into a tangle and also keeping them safe. this is the bit that causes addiction, once a couple are hanging up you begin to see how lovely a few paper hearts can look and the need to make more consumes you.

and that is it! if you wished, you could fold out your paper hearts as they are double sided but i kept mine flat, you could also stitch them across the top to make them 'garland' style, like in my 'shiny new year' diorama... thinking they would make lovely little gifts, i made one extra long one and mailed it to Our #1 so she may hang it in her little nest and think of us, whilst we think of her

i have now moved our 'have a heart' strings to the lounge and last night as i was pottling around the place finishing up for the day i noted how peachy they looked with the light shining from behind, their little hearty silhouettes doing a grand job at warming up the winter blues

she is running low on gold sticky stars because of your fabby 'i spy' and recall skills ~ Tif