creative heARTs 1

OK, you gotta' go see my sweet friend Tammy Gilley's BLOG.

She's creating a piece of heartART every day this month.
A most appropriate undertaking
for one of the most creative and big-hearted women I know.

She inspires the heck outta' me!

Sooooooo.....I played and came up with a few different heART creations today.
I'll post about all of them in the next week to hopefully inspire YOU!

 First up? A lil' something that was inspired by a craft 

that our daughter Jeni taught all of us when she was in fourth grade...

Swedish Hearts

 [images mine]
 There are many tutorials for these online, but I'm going to share my process, anyway!

 Supplies: paper, scissors.

Instead of the colorful paper used in most examples, I stuck with my own style -

using my stash of vintage sheet music, dictionary pages, and faded old school paper.

 I find that 'construction paper' is far too heavy... you need something that will flex a bit.

You DO need TWO different papers to make the weaving stand out, though.

To ensure that your hearts are all of similar size, 

create 'patterns' - those are the darker tan paper shapes up there.

 Just cut a rectangle with one curved end. Pretty simple. 

Make as many sizes as you'd like!

First, fold your papers in half, and place a pattern at THE FOLDED EDGE. 

The square end of the pattern will sit on the fold.

Then cut out your shape!

You can fold both papers together and cut them at the same time,

if they are not too thick.

Next, remove the pattern and hold the shapes TOGETHER, 

and cut into them...CAREFULLY!

You want to cut from the FOLDED EDGE up

JUST below where the curve begins:

By holding both shapes together when you do this step, 

you make sure that the cut is the same width on each piece,

so that they'll fit together in the next step...

Which is the WEAVING part!

 Separate the two pieces, and leave them folded in half.

Each 'strip' is a loop, with two sides.
You'll place the strips inside one another in an alternating pattern.
Begin with strip 1 of piece A, and pass it through strip 1 of piece B.

[here, A is the ivory paper and B is the sheet music]

 Then, insert strip 2 of piece B [sheet music] into strip 1 of piece A [ivory paper]

When both strips have been woven in this 'in/out' pattern, ^ here's what it looks like.

Note that the second strip is loose... now take it, and weave the REVERSE pattern.

Since you put [1A] INTO [1B] first on the last strip, 

[ivory paper INSIDE sheet music]

you'll put [2B] into [2A] on this one.

[sheet music INSIDE ivory paper]

In this photo you can see how you have to flex the strips just a bit 

to get them to go INSIDE the other strip... be gentle,

especially if you are using vintage papers. They are fragile.

Finished heart!

Now.....
if you are feeling quite accomplished at this already...
You can cut out your shapes, and then cut MULTIPLE 'strips' into each shape.

 The weaving gets incrementally more difficult the more strips you cut,
but they look REALLY cool!!!

You can add a little handle and make your hearts a container...
for a special love note or gift card, perhaps?
Or use it to hang your hearts as ornaments.

I hung mine on a mobile in my studio:

I love how they are subtle in color but very 'texturally pleasing'
as my daughter Jeni would say.
Thanks for the tutorial oh so long ago, Miss Jen. <3
[Seems like it was yesterday, really....]


I'm really glad that I decided it was time to stop working 24/7
and played a bit in the studio today!
[no, it's still not unpacked, and a lot of my stuff is MIA, thanks for asking].

I'll be sharing more of my creative heARTs next week ;0)