Saturday 28 January 2012

DIY Valentine Love Notes Garland

Today's tutorial is a Valentine's garland, made with mini envelopes.


It's a variation on the advent garland I made a couple of years ago...


... but instead of having an envelope for each day leading up until Christmas, there's an envelope for the first 14 days of February, each one with a little love note or other special something tucked inside.

To make the garland, you will need:

- 14 mini envelopes
- washi tape (Japanese masking tape) & pretty doilies, or patterned paper, cute stickers, etc, basically anything you fancy using to decorate the envelopes
- red felt and the heart template from this tutorial
- glue and double-sided tape for securing all your decorative details in place
- scissors and a pen (I used one with red ink)
- mini pegs and a length of twine, ribbon or cord for displaying the envelopes as a garland

1) Cut out 14 hearts from red felt 

2) Decorate the front of each envelope with washi tape, doilies or other pretty things. 

I cut strips of tape that were slightly longer than the envelope, then turned the envelope over and trimmed the excess tape with scissors.


To stick the doilies, I placed the doily face down on a piece of scrap paper and carefully dabbed it with a glue stick, covering only the area I'd need with glue. I then carefully peeled the doily from the paper, lightly positioned it on the envelope and pressed down to secure it in place.


3) Then use double-sided tape to stick a felt heart in the centre of each envelope, and write the dates Feb 1st to Feb 14th (or just the numbers 1 - 14) on the envelopes. 




4) Write a little love note or choose other special bits and pieces to tuck in each envelope - a copy of a special photo, maybe, or little gifts... or you could write a longer love letter and cut it into 14 pieces, so it can be assembled piece by piece over the 14 days ... or, if you're planning a special evening or trip for Valentine's Day you could put in 13 clues to what you're doing / where you're going, and then on Valentine's Day itself write a note revealing your plans


5) Finally, use the mini pegs and twine / cord to display the garland. 



Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!


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9 comments:

nicedaydesigns said...

That's so pretty! And I love that washi tape, I'm a bit obsessed with grid and copybook stationary.

I had a weird thought the other day, that it would be nice to be a lesbian for Valentine's Day, that way both women could get excited about making crafty things for each other, whereas if I made John something he would appreciate the effort, but not really love/understand the cuteness like another girl would. Is that the strangest thought ever?
I'll just end up buying him a nerdy thing which he will love.

Nena said...

ΠΟΛΥ ΜΟΥ ΑΡΕΣΕ Η ΙΔΕΑ ΣΟΥ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΑΠΛΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΩΤΟΤΥΠΗ!!! ΜΠΡΑΒΟ ΣΟΥ.

homemade@myplace said...

I love this garland!!!
Thank you for sharing, love xxx Alessandra

JJB said...

How cute! Washi tape and envelopes... my favorites. Hope you don't mind that I linked to your project in my "Lovey Dovey Roundup"--> http://dancingcommas.blogspot.com/2012/02/lovey-dovey-round-up.html

Unknown said...

This is such a cute idea ... we are in need of a little romance in this house ;-) !!

Lisa said...

Cute! I love the doilies as decoration

Bugs and Fishes said...

nicedaydesigns - ahahaha, I know what you mean! perhaps we need an annual day where we all make things for our BFFs :)

j. wilson said...

i love this! all scrappy and happy. instant adoration, thank you for sharing!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks Jessica! x