DIY Tutorial: Xmas Heart Mural

(again, please excuse the rubbish phone pics! Not long till xmas and I'll hopefully have a new camera...)

 

 

Here's a fun idea for you if you happen to have piles of old xmas cards lying around like I did!

My heart is a little wonky but I can't be arsed to re-do it now...it doesn't really notice in person :) Anyway I learned from my mistakes and if you follow these steps and tips you'll end up with a perfectly shaped xmassy heart of awesomeness!

1) Sit down with piles of old cards and a pair of scissors in front of something entertaining... this takes a while! Helpers would be good.

2) Cut out loads of pictures in all different sizes... you'll need more than you think!

- Cut out obvious things and then look for smaller images in the pictures to cut.

- I ended up with santas, xmassy bears, presents, reindeer, snowmen, trees... and loads more of the obvious xmas stuff. Once you've cut out everything you think you could have cut out, look again. Even the tiniest things will make a difference and fill more space in your heart.

- Check the backs of your cards - a lot of them will have a tiny version of the picture on the front so use that too.

- Still need more? Go back yet again and cut hearts and stars from any patterned or glittery bits you've got left.

- STILL need more? Cut bits from xmas gift-wrap and tags. Or find some coloured paper and cut random shapes. Or get some of those little ribbon bows that you put on pressies and stick those on!

3) Once you're done with cutting, lay everything out on a flat surface face down. Grab some sticky tape (I use cellotape for walls all the time and it's never ever ripped off paint or left a mark...but test your tape on your walls first cos you never know!) and make little rolls of it to stick to the back of each piece.

4) Choose where you want to make your mural and mark out a heart shape with the tape or little balls of blutack. You can kid of judge how big you can make it by looking at your collection of cut-outs and hazarding a guess. Keep standing back and checking it looks symmetrical.

(Obviously I didn't do this bit, I just shoved stuff on the wall and hoped it would work and then spent a week messing about with it every now and then until it resembled a heart - not reccommended!)

5) Fill your heart with the pictures!

- Start with the edge using similar sized pieces to go all the way around.

- Then use your largest pieces. I made sure mine were spread out so the heart would look balanced in the end.

- Fill in the rest using everything else keeping roughly the same amount of space between each picture.

- Use the tiniest pieces last - keep standing back and checking to see where there are obvious gaps.

Edited to add (whoopsie!) :

6) REMOVE THE TAPE (or blutack) from the outside.

And you're done!

When I came up with this idea I was envisioning a massive bigger-than-me sized heart in my head but in reality this is the biggest I could get with the cards I had. BUT I'm thinking I'll keep these in an envelope when the decorations get put away and add to it each year with all the saved xmas cards. Then one day it will be HUGE and amazing! yay.

Here are a couple of other pics of our decorations while I'm here:

^ handmade snowflakes kept from last year :)

 

 
^ the most tack-tastic xmas tree, just crammed with xmassy stuff...I ♥ it :)

xxx

Comments

[Linda]

What a great idea. Thanks for the tutorial.

All About Cats

[Laurie Cilley]

Very cute idea!! Great way to recycle old cards too, I always keep my old cards and have in the past used them, after I cut them down, as gift tags. Great idea here...very nice!

[April]

Love this ♥

am also fond of your reused snowflakes. The designs are very nice. I have tons of reused snowflakes around my house... on doors, windows, hanging from the ceiling and windowsills. I love my snowflakes.

[newendstudio]

You always have great ideas and this is another one. Very pretty display!

[Lauren]

Aw that is so cool! You put so much effort into everything. Love this idea x

[Venus]

Woman where are you!? It's Venus from livejournal... you're kids are so big now. I think I still have the most perfect picture of your daughter in a red dress saved on my computer somewhere... lol. No more blogging? I restarted a funner blog at v-e-n-u-s.com come visit me!

[Miki]

Awe, what an awesome idea! ;D

hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Miki.