These romantic pastel hearts are quick to make, as there are no petals to cut and you can use a relatively small heart shape made from corrugated card. You can also buy 3-D heart shapes ready to decorate from craft stores, or you could even attach poms to a willow or hazel heart found in garden centres and home stores. These hanging decorations are perfect for adding a handmade touch to your wedding day, but would look just as great at birthday and anniversary parties!
Materials
Corrugated card
Cutting board and craft knife
Narrow ribbon, for hanging
96in (240cm) florist’s wire
Wire cutters
4 sheets 20 x 30in (50 x 75cm) tissue paper (1 sheet of paper will make 4 poms)
Scissors
Clear all-purpose glue or hot-glue gun
1. Use the template to draw a heart shape on your corrugated card. Cut out the heart shape, using a cutting board and craft knife, and then cut out the middle section, so that you have a slim frame to work with.
2. Make a small hole at the top of the heart and thread your narrow hanging ribbon through the hole. Tie to secure.
3. Cut the florist’s wire into 16 equal 6in (15cm) pieces with wire cutters and set to one side. Working with a couple of sheets of tissue paper at a time, fold, crease, and cut the tissue into smaller rectangles of 3½ x 5in (9 x 12.5cm), keeping your edges straight and neat. Count out eight small rectangles into 16 separate neat piles of paper. Take one stack of tissue paper sheets and fold over ½in (1cm) along the shortest length. Continue making concertina folds until you get to the end of the tissue paper. Then wrap a piece of florist’s wire around the center of the fold. Twist to secure. Repeat to make 16 poms in total.
4. Fluff the poms. Hold the pom at the place where the wire is twisted (this will be the back). Tease out the first layer that is facing you. Pull this as far as you can toward the center of the pom. Repeat on the other side. Then tease and fluff up the remaining layers, all of them away from the back of the pom. Trim any long pieces of wire with wire cutters.
5. Take one pom and glue it to the “dip” in the heart shape, using clear all-purpose glue or a hot-glue gun. Continue adding poms, bearing in mind that you will need an equal amount on each side of the heart.
6. Fluff up any layers that may have been flattened. Your heart is now ready to display.
Tip: If both sides of the heart are likely to be seen, make double the amount of poms so that you can attach them to the back of the heart, too.
This project is from Handmade Wedding. To get more fab blog posts like this one – direct to your inbox – be sure to sign up to our mailing list here.