Paper heart weaving

Some good advice, if you are a heart weaving novice:

I have made all my DIY sheets to print from any old household printer, but ordinary printing paper tends to be a little coarse - which will make it a bit more challenging. It is not a problem if you cut out your shapes very carefully, and make sure - this is especially important - that the slits between the legs / fringes, or what ever you call them, are as deep as I have marked on the designs. Actually, give them an extra millimeter, you will not regret that.

In Denmark we buy the lovely, traditional 'glanspapir' - glossy, thin, colorful, but surprisingly strong paper, in any supermarket round Christmastime. It is very well suited for this purpose, but I have always strayed from the standard procedure, and made hearts from magazines, wrapping paper, fabric, plastic binders and what have you - and I always liked to add a splash of pattern to anything I could plop onto an Adobe Illustrator art board, so - here goes....

See if you can find some glossy or 'hard', quite thin, inkjet paper. And let me know if you find a nice type!

You will also need: very sharp knife (I love my NT Cutter L-500, and have done so, ever since I spent long nights making cardboard architectural models at school), good, regular scissors (Fiskars plain orange handle one is worth every penny), small, pointy and very sharp scissors - and a cutting mat. Well, I love my cutting mat, but an old newspaper works as well. A bit of glue, a thin knitting pin or a kebab skewer - why?

You will find out when you get to some of the tricky corners. I say no more... Have fun, folks!

I also have a few links for you, if you are interested in some seriously challenging heart weaving.

All of the designs I make for this blog are super simple, quite easy to make, and much more about sitting around with yourself, your kids or friends, and making nice things to bling up your house with, come Christmastime. Put on a nice tune, make some punch, bring out the scissors and the glue and everything else, and have a nice time. In Denmark we call it to get together and 'klippeklistre', and it makes a wonderful change from tv, facebook and Nintendo.

 

For a very basic tutorial, click here.

 

BUT: in every family there is a true nerd. In mine it is my brother-in-law. He will make a woven star the size of a pea. He will make a heart with twenty fringes, and interweave names, motifs, and what have you. Some day he will make a 1:20 model of the Versailles from paperclips. That is, if he should feel inclined to do so (he would be capable, no doubt).

For that type of person, my projects are way too easy.

Here are a few links.
Some pages are in danish, but there are templates to print and copy, and lots of god advice.

Erik Ginnerskov / sjove julehjerter

Bjørn Hee's hjemmeside / alternative julehjerter

Papermatrix - fantastic page in english, done by a mother-daughter team, an absolute must 
if you like modern takes on traditional paper crafting ideas, and really lovely, intricate designs.

For making woven Fröbel stars, I have made a simple tutorial - click here.

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Here is my private collection of old, fragile paper hearts, most of them made by me when I was just a wee girl, others by family members. Every one of them have adorned several trees!