Valentine’s Day Crafts | Make Newspaper Hearts

If you’re looking for an inexpensive Valentine’s Day craft, newspaper hearts fit the bill perfectly. Many people get free newspapers and fliers in the mail and this project can turn those papers into simple hearts for Valentine’s Day decorating. These newspaper hearts look sweet on their own or can be strung together for a Valentine’s Day garland. To create the hearts, the only materials you will only need are newspapers and scissors.

Instructions to Make Newspaper Hearts for Valentine’s Day

1. Cut squares of equal size from newspaper.  My squares were about 4″x4″.
2. Fold the squares in half.
3. Cut half a heart shape on the fold of the paper (see photo for reference if needed).
4. Cut another heart out from the center of the heart. This will leave you with one heart outline and one solid heart.
5. Separate your different heart styles into piles.  You will have one pile of newspaper squares with a heart cut out from the center; one pile of heart outlines; and one pile of small solid newspaper hearts.

Instructions to Make Intertwined Heart Garland

1. Gather the pile of heart outlines to make an intertwined heart garland.
2. Cut anywhere along the heart (I cut along the fold on the bottom).
3. Intertwine the heart onto another one like a chain and then seal the cut with a small piece of tape.
4. Take another heart outline and repeat the step till the heart chain is the length you desire.

You can hang these heart garlands vertically or horizontally. Here are a couple examples of how they look, vertically versus horizontally:

Instructions to Make Square Heart Garland

1. Gather the pile of hearts that are the squares of newspaper with the hearts missing from the center.
2. Use small pieces of tape to connect my squares, leaving a gap between the squares.
3. To keep the garland from becoming a sticky tape disaster I used 2 pieces of tape each time I connected the hearts together. One piece would link the heart squares together and then I would apply a piece of tape to the opposite side in the same spot so that the two sticky sides of tape were sticking together.

You could hang this style of garland at the head or foot of a bed, along windows, or over doors.  I decided to wrap mine around an old milk canister:  

This craft will leave you with a pile of small but solid newspaper hearts that can be used in making Valentine’s Day crafts or other art projects, tucked into greeting cards, or left around the house in nooks and crannies. Here are some places I hid mine:

I love how these hearts, in all of their forms, are versatile and easy.  You could also create these hearts using maps and scrapbook paper as well.  The supplies are little to no cost, earth friendly, and accessible.  It is a quick project, kid friendly, and easy to modify– I am sure the followers of this blog will find some creative ways to decorate with these newspaper hearts!