Heart(s) On A String -- Updated, with photos! (1/11/11)

As I type this, I am getting tense. I can imagine the responses I will get, so let me preface this by reminding you that I am a planner.

I am a planner.

Tonight I made a banner. I am so proud. I cannot make sewn banners -- well, I probably could, but I would not be pleased with the outcome, I am sure -- but I am crafty when it comes to photographs. Thus, I made a photo and paper heart bedecked banner. Christmas and New Year's are behind us, and I've gone gleefully full force into January. W's mom's birthday was the 1st, and if you've read my blog, then you know that we celebrated yesterday. Such a great way to kick off the New Year. His sister's birthday is the 16th; my son's is the 18th. After that date, I start hanging my Valentine's Day decorations. Too soon, you say, finger wagging? I respectfully disagree.

The way that I see it, we get approximately four to six weeks to have the house decorated for any given holiday. Halloween goes up the week following my mother's birthday, so after September 18th, and comes down on November 1st. Christmas decorations go up the day after Thanksgiving and come down on or about New Year's Day. St. Patrick's Day decorations go up about a week after Valentine's Day, and then Easter decorations follow St. Patrick's Day (this year, Easter is late, April 24th, which will make for a (hopefully) nice, warm holiday). Though Mother's Day doesn't have decorations, Memorial Day does, and those American flags that go out that Memorial Day weekend, stay out all summer here at my house. Now, I do celebrate Cinco De Mayo, but I only decorate my house for a week that week; they stay up through my annual party.

It makes sense, then, that my Valentine's Day decorations should go up in mid-January.

I bought a L O V E banner on etsy, that I immediately wanted as soon as I saw it. It's well crafted and will be up in my house each Valentine's Day for years to come. I draped it from my fireplace today (January 11), a few days earlier than expected. I couldn't wait! Love is in season all year long.

My LOVE banner from Victorian Station, an etsy store.

I wanted to make another banner, too, that displayed photos of my loved ones. In past years (and perhaps in this current one, we shall see), I have used a die cut to make hearts, and put my son's photos on them, then laminate them, to send as Valentine's Day cards. I took the die cut idea, and blended it with a lovely banner concept (I have four great Christmas banners by Funky Junky Art) to make a string of hearts. This is the finished product. I am thrilled.

My paper laminated hearts on a string (twine).

Here's what I did. I photocopied a couple of pages from my very favorite book, Anthropologie of An American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann, made the words larger and smaller by adjusting the zoom, and printing double-sided onto red copy paper. Then I took those pages and, from them, die cut hearts. I printed squares of photos of me, W, and the kids, and also his parents and mine, and of course, the famous Julia and Paul Child's photo (I almost put the one of them in the bath, instead, but thought better of it) onto plain white paper. I cut those photos out, dabbed glue with a glue stick onto the back (so it wasn't lumpy), then put the hearts through a laminating machine.

After they were done, I cut around each laminated heart, and hole punched heart shaped holes into either side of the fattest part of the heart. I used twine to string them together, with the long piece of it against the backside. I added a couple of extra plain purple and pink hearts, just to create definition between the red ones, though the pink are only between the children's photo hearts, to punctuate their importance.

My banner from the back.

I am very happy with the way it turned out. Now, I am onto making a second one for W. I love the concept, but more that that, the hearts are covered in the most beautiful sentences, and photos of my loved ones.