Hello, friends! I have a confession to make. I may have stooped to an all-time low.
I raided my kids' decks of cards for this project.
And by "my kids", I mean my students.
I can see the headlines now;
Teacher Steals From Students and Writes About It On Blog
The other day, my students were using decks of cards to formulate 4 digit subtraction problems with regrouping. I was working with one of my students when the idea hit me, these cards would make a really cool garland for my fireplace.
And so...I took them. I stole from my students. I literally went through 2 of their decks of cards and pulled out all of the hearts. I took them. From right under their noses!
I got swept up in a Valentine's Mania and before I knew it, I hole punched all of the cards and I stashed them in my bookbag. When I got home I threaded decorative ribbon through the holes.
The fun thing about this project is that you can totally customize it. Your center cards could be a Queen and a King, a King and a King or a Queen and a Queen. It can be made to match your relationship!
Lastly, I used glue dots to adhere glittery red and pink hearts on the cards to add a little bit more personality. The hearts were actually from a package of table scatter I picked up for $1 at the Dollar Tree. I was able to make a wreath, a Valentine's Love Tree, this garland and still have table scatter for my Valentine's tablescape!
As silly as it is, I think the foam hearts and the little red ribbons helped bring this project all together. By simply adding those two things, the garland no longer looked just like cards hanging on a string.
It would be really cool if you could make your anniversary date out of some of the cards. Unfortunately, my anniversary is 7.20 so I wasn't able to do it with mine. My Queen of Hearts are surrounded by random numbers.
I did alternate between the front side and the back side of the card to give it a little variety. I like this look much better than having all of the front sides showing. You could also have only your face cards (the Queen(s) or King(s)) showing and leave the rest of the cards red. It is totally up to you!
If you don't have kids to steal from, or if you have morals, you can always pick up 2 decks of cards from The Dollar Tree for $1. I hope that you'll have as much fun with this cheap and easy project as I did!
Check out how all of my DIY projects came together in my Valentine's Day Home Tour! Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter so you don't miss more great Valentine's Day ideas!