Last updated on February 12th, 2020 at 11:16 pm

How to Make a Paper Heart Garland

by Jane Lake

Here’s how to make a traditional folded paper heart garland for Valentine’s Day.

Because you fold the paper hearts like a fan or an accordion, you can easily tuck this pretty garland inside a Valentine card as a surprise gift for that special someone.

Supplies:

» construction paper, scrapbook paper, gift wrap or wallpaper
» heart shaped template (print our folded heart template, or draw your own)
» pencil
» scissors
» transparent tape

Craft Instructions:

Print and cut out a heart-shaped template,, or draw your own on a piece of stiff paper.

Fold a piece of paper like an accordion, or a fan, making each fold the same width or just a tiny bit smaller than your heart template. This is an important step!

You can see how the paper should be folded in our diagram, at right, to make sure you have it correctly.

Place the folded paper on the table, and set the heart template on top of it, as shown at left.

The flattened sections of the heart shape should be placed against the folds on both the left and the right sides of the paper.

If you have drawn your own heart shape without flattened sides, place the heart shape on the paper so that the edges overlap the sides of the paper just a little at the top.

Trace around the heart shape, then carefully cut it out around the bottom point, and around the curves at the top, leaving the flattened edges on each side uncut.

When you open out the folded hearts, they should look like the garland shown here.

How to Make the Hearts Garland into a Longer Paper Bunting

To make the garland longer, make another in the same way and join them together with invisible tape.

Keep adding sections of paper hearts until they open out to the desired length.

Now you have an impressive paper heart bunting for Valentine’s Day!