Weekend DIY: origami heart banner

Now that we’re a full week in to the month of February, the Valentine’s Day bug has kicked in full swing! I’m a little addicted to stopping by the craft aisles of Daiso (it’s the Japanese dollar store… well, $1.50 store) and have been stocking up on origami paper since October of 2012 for a fun project. Back then, I didn’t know what I’d use the paper for but the origami bug bit me hard last week and I finally came up with a fun project for this month. It involves folding an army of hearts and trying out a bunch of different tutorials.

Supplies for this project:
origami paper (I used 5″ x 5″ squares)
2 ft of kitchen twine
mini wooden clothes pins
sticky tack
Instax photos (optional)

The use of Instax photos in this project is totally up to you! I’m one of those super sentimental people that keeps all the cards/letters that people send to me and I put them up on my fridge. I also put up all my Instax photos. Unfortunately, there is only so much surface to cover and I’ve resorted to putting a bunch of photos in a box since I’m out of magnets… and fridge space.

To start, you’ll need to decide what size and style of hearts you want to use for the banner. I tried out a couple of tutorials that I found online before deciding on one. If you like bigger hearts, this tutorial was really easy and you can fold a heart in under a minute. If you’re looking for a heart that can double as a note holder, there’s this tutorial for an envelope heart that you could put cute little messages in! The heart that I ended using for my banner was this one because I liked the smaller size (the final size is about 1/4 of the size of the sheet of paper).

Once you’ve picked your heart size/style, fold about 10 of them (or however many you’d like). This will be the most time consuming part of the project but once you’re done, you’ll only be 10 minutes away from a new wall accent!

Cut 2 feet of kitchen twine and put it up on the wall, securing the ends with sticky tack (or whatever other adhesive works best for your walls). Cover the sticky tack by placing a heart on top. Evenly space out the rest of your hearts along the twine, securing them into place with a mini clothes pin.

Then, take your Instax photos and pin one between each of the hearts. In just 10 minutes, you’re done! I ended up putting my banner above my desk. Not only is it a great accent for my work space, but it also cheers me up every time I’m reminded of those good times captured in the photos.