love is in the air (pt. 3)

Day Three: The Paper Banner

This is the same one you used to make as a kid, by accordion-folding a strip of paper, cutting a shape, then unfolding it for a fun banner or chain or whatever!

You will need:

- long strip of pattern paper

- pen or pencil

- scissors

Step One: Cut a long strip out of your pattern paper. Make sure it's a little bit taller than the size you want your finished shape to be. I think I did a 12 inch strip to be sure it would stretch across the entire layout, but make it as long as you want.

Step Two: Accordion fold the strip. Each fold needs to be as wide as you want your finished shape. Make sure the sides of the fold line up.

Step Three: Draw your heart on the first side of the folded up paper. This makes it much easier to cut out the finished shape...I did my first by hand and it was very very lopsided!

Step Four: Cut out your heart. Remember you are cutting through a lot of layers of paper, so your shape may end up a little rough in places. But you can always trim it down once you unfold it. If you are using paper with a white core, you might notice the rough edges more than if you are using cardstock, or other paper with a coloured core.

Step Five: Unfold your heart paper banner. If you want to trim it down a bit, if it's rough or lopsided, do so now.

Step Six: Adhere your chain to your layout. Mine acts a border for the title. Try laying it over your photos, or placing your title right on top of it!

my finished layout...

I love how this layout turned out! You can sort of see how I used other heart/love embellishments on the layout. The American Crafts "Love" button, and the Love Elsie stickers ("i heart" and "enjoy enjoy")

Note: the background was made by spritzing Glimmer Mist (in yellows and brown) over top of an old Heidi Swapp chipboard pack I'm using as a mask/stencil.

There are so many fun Valentine's embellishments and paper lines out there...but they're usually pink and sparkly and that's not my cup of tea!! So I like to be able to make my own "love" layouts without always relying on what the scrapbook companies think I might like for that. And these are the results. Remember that all of these techniques are easily transferable to other themes, and other shapes. I'm just getting the ball rolling for you!

See you back here next week for a couple of fun layouts using some digital (and printed) products from one of my favourite sites!

Until then...later...and Happy Valentine's Day!