Dictionary Heart Garland Tutorial

One of the trends I'm loving right now is book page/dictionary page crafts.  I love how they convey a story and have a sweet vintage feel. The great thing about using book pages is it's cheap! If you can't find an old, unwanted book around the house you can find them for under a dollar at a thrift store.

There are some great projects out there on the web right now:

Stephanie from Under the Table and Dreaming created this gorgeous faux rosewood wreath. If I can find time some day, I'd love to make one of these.

Madison from Madison Avenue made this super cute bracelet cuff using a toilet paper roll! I would never think to do that, so creative. 

Alisa Burke frequently uses book pages to paint/sketch on. She created a beautiful butterfly wreath with her sketches. 

and Etsy is full of great handmade crafts using book/dictionary pages:

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So of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and create a tutorial of my own:

I made this very simple garland using a thesaurus I found at a thrift store for only 50 cents! Other materials needed are index cards or cardstock and thread for your sewing machine. 

Start by cutting lots of hearts out of your paper. I did this the cheater way and folded the page in half. Once I cut a nice heart shape that I liked, I used it as a guide for the rest. You can cut through several pages at a time to make the process go faster. 

Cut 3/4" strips of cardstock or of index cards. Cut them just shorter than the height of your hearts. The index cards add stability to your garland.

Now that you have a stack of hearts and a stack of cut index cards, relocate to your sewing machine.

Change the stitch length to the longest setting.  If you don't do this the machine will just perforate your paper and your hearts will split in half.

Sandwich the index card in between two of your book page hearts.

Start sewing! after each heart is fed through, gently pull away so that you get some slack with your threads, do not cut them. Then feed the next heart through. I varied the distances in between my hearts but you could take care to get them an equal distance apart.

And you're done! Hang them down a window like I did or drape them along a wall or mantle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to...

http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/

http://niftythriftythings.blogspot.com/

http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/

http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/

http://www.skiptomylou.org/

http://sarahndipities.blogspot.com/
http://www.bystephanielynn.com/

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