I love Valentines Day- its the perfect excuse to wear pink!

Yesterday, my wonderful friend Brianna and I spent hours cutting out hearts and stringing beads for a Valentines Day party.

We actually did something very similar for my wedding three years ago, so it brought back lots of fun memories. We spent days making flowers & stringing hundreds of crystal beads. Along with the favor bags of chocolate kisses, the crystals and flowers dangled from the branches of the white trees in my reception (pictured above.) I wish I had gotten better pictures of how my white trees turned out (see my post about it HERE)… If only I had had a blog when I was planning my wedding… then I could have documented all the DIY projects I did. But that was before the days of Pinterest, so I didn’t know better. Oh well, when my sisters get married I will have more time on my hands to personally document all of that kind of stuff! 🙂

To make your own dainty garland you will need: A needle, medium weight string that won’t tangle easily, a selection of fun scrapbook paper and assorted beads. We got all our supplies from AC Moore.

We went with a combination of tear drop red, small clear, and large silver & diamond beads. 

To make your own garlands, first, tie a heavy bead to the bottom of your string to weigh it down.

Second, combine different heart shapes and paper combinations using scissors and glue. I love it when they are double sided.

When your hearts are assembled you can start to sew them onto the string. Starting on the less “pretty side” of your heart, puncture it by making two holes on the bottom and two on the top. The four holes allow the heart to perform like a bead and slide up or down your thread.

I liked adding a bit of personality to some of my hearts by adding hand lettering.

To prevent tangling, these garlands should be hung up immediately, or stored in a box with lots of space. Believe me, it is a NIGHTMARE to untangle these!

They look so pretty up against walls and windows!