Paper Heart Chain
Fold and cut paper into a chain of hearts. Make a super long one for an awesome Valentine's day décor!
Featured Crafts
Supplies Needed
- Paper
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Crayons, markers or paint (optional)
- Buttons, sequins, tiny pom-poms, small bows, etc. (optional)
STEPS
1Cut paper into a long strip.
Cut paper into a long strip. You can use a large sheet like butcher paper, gift wrap paper or construction paper for a super long heart chain. The length of the strip defines the length of your heart chain while the width determines how tall the hearts will be.
You can also use a smaller sheet of paper (e.g. A4, Letter size, or 9" x 12") to make several heart chains that you can later glue together for a longer chain. I started out with Letter size (8.5" x 11") paper that I halved lengthwise. My two strips are 11" long and 4.25" wide.
2Make the first fold.
Take your paper strip and make the first fold on one short side. This fold defines how wide the hearts will be. My fold is around 1.25" wide.
3Flip the paper.
Flip the paper so that the fold is at the back.
4Make the second fold.
Fold the paper following the width of the first fold.
5Make the third fold.
Flip and fold the paper again just like in Steps 3 and 4.
6Continue folding back-and-forth.
Continue flipping and folding the paper until you've folded the paper's entire length.
7Draw a heart outline.
Draw a half-heart on the paper's top fold. Notice how the curved part of the heart goes over the edge of the paper. This will make sure that the hearts are connected.
8Add details.
You can make paper hearts with cut-out sections. Mark out these sections, make sure they're accessible to cutting from the folded edge of the paper.
9Cut along the heart outline.
While keeping the paper folded, cut along the heart outline.
10Cut out the inner sections.
Cut out the inner sections, if you drew any.
11Unfold the paper.
Carefully unfold to reveal a chain of hearts. Trim off any excess paper after the last heart.
12Decorate the hearts.
An easy and fun way to decorate the hearts is to draw or paint some patterns on them. You can also glue some sequins, tiny pom-poms, buttons and other fun accents.
If you used colored paper or if you made some cut-outs inside the hearts, you won't need to decorate the hearts at all. They're lovely enough as is!
13Make more!
You can make a couple more heart chains to create a super long one. Don't forget to check out more ways to decorate your paper heart chain in the section below.
More Ideas
Layer two or more heart chains.
Make a second heart chain slightly larger than the first. Glue the smaller heart chain on top of the larger chain. You can make a third one to come up with a chain of concentric hearts.
Cover the cut-out sections.
If you made cut-outs inside your paper hearts (See Step 10 above), you can add more color by gluing paper at the back of the hearts. You can even use cellophane paper for a stained glass effect.
