We have a wall in our living room that is known as the craft wall because we use it to show off all of the craft, paintings, drawings etc that the girls have made. We usually theme the display and add to it as they make more pieces and then change it over when a new holiday comes along. It was recently full of Christmas drawings and paintings and now we're switching it over to a Valentines display. Usually it's only filled with the girls masterpieces, there's never a shortage of fabulous artwork to hang because they create something nearly every day, however this time I decided I'd get my crafty mum hat on and make a heart wall hanging myself. I did it in secret at night while they were asleep so it was a surprise and my 2yr old now tells me every morning wow mummy look that you made it pretty as soon as we walk downstairs. I think I might move it into their bedroom once we take down our Valentines craft wall.
It was super simple to make and can be used as room decor, a valentines gift, or just for display. It can also be made by preschoolers pretty easily if you sub out the hot glue for sticky tape. The best part about this heart wall hanging is it was completely free!
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WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE A HEART WALL HANGING
- A thin branch
- Paint chip cards
- Bakers twine or jute string
- Heart cookie cutter
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Pen
When I decided to create a heart wall hanging I simply looked through my crafting stash to see what we already had at home. I came up with the design based on the materials we had on hand, so this craft didn't actually cost me anything to make, except time. If you don't have everything on hand though you can get most of it for free or relatively cheap.
The girls love to collect sticks and small branches every time we go outside so I had a collection readily available, but if you don't have any a quick walk to the local park is all you need to find the perfect branch. I chose ours because it was thin, so not too heavy, and I liked its character. Plus the small twig ends sticking out provided a good anchor point for the string.
To make the hearts themselves I used some red and pink paint chip cards I already had. If you don't have any take a trip to Bunnings, or your local hardware store and you should be able to get them for free in the paint aisle. The girls always take some each time we go because they're such a great resource and there are so many cool paint chip crafts, we'll never run out of ways to use them. You can always use coloured cardstock for the hearts as well if you don't have any paint chip cards available. Hot glue guns can be found relatively cheap at local dollar stores and craft shops or online at Etsy or Catch {AU}.
HOW TO MAKE A HEART WALL HANGING
1. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter or playdough mould to trace heart shapes on the back of the paint chip cards. I did this on the back so the pen lines wouldn't be visible on the coloured side of the finished product. Try to fit as many hearts as you can onto each paint card. Mine were square cards and I managed to fit 6 hearts onto each one.
2. Carefully cut out all the hearts with scissors.
3. Cut 3 similar size pieces of jute string. Tie them individually onto the branch. They can be tied in any position you like, I just evenly spaced ours out. Don't worry if they don't end up hanging at the same length once the knots are tied {it just makes it look more rustic}. If you don't have jute string you could also use bakers twine, fishing line or any string/ribbon you already have.
4. Turn the hanging over to attach the hearts to the string. Remember it's now backwards when you're attaching the hearts if you had a specific colour order in mind. Attach the hearts one at a time by placing the heart upside down so you can't see the coloured side. Apply some hot glue to the heart and then hold the string into the glue until it's dried. Attach each heart in this way to various spaces on the string. I chose to do ours in colour order from dark to light and spaced them at similar heights across each string. It could also be done with the colours all mixed up, haphazardly spaced, or even colour patterned. The design is completely up to you. If you have younger children and they want to help assemble the hanging you can always use tape to attach the hearts instead of hot glue.
5. Once the glue is all dried attach another piece of string to either end of the branch so it can hang to the wall.
Disclosure - This post contains some affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, should you make a purchase.
