DIY Valentine’s Day Bunting

I did it. It was inevitable. I jumped on the bunting-train. I tried to resist the cute and whimsical nature of it, but it was too powerful. Like a fluffy kitten that has imprinted on a mother deer. You win bunting, you win.

So let it be known. And if you like, let it be done – by you.

As you may have seen here, I decorated my mantel for Valentine’s Day.

As promised, here is how I made the Valentine’s Day bunting (for zero.point.zero dollars). mini yippee!

First, I scoured my scrap booking paper supply and pulled out anything that seemed Valentiney to me (colour and theme).

Then I measured my mantel loosely by holding up a piece of string, adding some length (to allow it to drape) and then doubled that since I wanted to have two levels of ‘swags’. Even a mantel has to have ‘swag’ right Beibs!?

I determined that I’d like each of my little bunting flags (bunti? bunters?) to be about 3″ wide so did some math and determined I’d need about 41-43 pieces.

From there, I made a cardboard template of a 3″ wide by 4″ deep triangle. You can see I also entertained a 5″ deep triangle but in the end, liked the proportions of the first one better.

To draw the triangle I simply found the half way mark of my 3″ side (1.5″) and drew a line straight down from there. I marked that line at the 4″ mark and then just connected my corners with a ruler and pencil (a big shout out to grade thrreeeee!).

Then, I chose 11 of the scrapbook papers that I liked and began tracing 4 triangles onto the back of each one (“4 each x 11 papers” would offer me 44 pieces in the end).

After that I closely introduced my exacto blade to my ruler. They hit it off right away and have been on a few Valentine’s dates since.

Once all my pieces were cut I organized them into piles and arranged them in a succession that I thought coordinated well.

Then I flipped each pile over and got out some cute orange and white ‘ticking’ string that I had on hand.

From there I began to tape the string to the back of each bunti (is that what we determined a singular one would be called?)

The solid colours you see just happen to be the colour of the back of some of the scrapbook paper designs.

Once it was all done, I simply strung it up on a few finishing nails that I had on the mantel already. I purposely made each swag uneven to the next. I liked the variety and look that it offered.

And that’s it!

Next up I will show you how to make the ‘love’ art that you see above should you be interested.

How about you? Any fun Valentine’s touches around your house? Any recent ‘shout outs’ to your grade school days? Nothing like a ruler, tape and sharp instruments to make you nostalgic for your youth 😉

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go and find a cinnamon heart to eat.