With Valentine’s day fast approaching I’ve got an easy to make decor idea for you today.

A little while ago I was given quite a pile of old books, which are falling apart or water damaged. They are perfect for crafting with so in the run up to Christmas I shared quite a few ideas that used old book pages, with gift bags and card ideas. Now we are coming towards Valentine’s day I’ve got another book page craft for you; Valentine bunting.

Here in the UK we call this bunting, but I’m not completely sure if that is a word used all over the world or whether the word garland would be a better description. Whatever you call it, it is pretty and fun to hang up to celebrate Valentine’s day or a wedding or anniversary. Actually thinking about it, it would be perfect for a first anniversary as the gift for a 1st wedding anniversary is paper.

To make Valentine Book Bunting you will need:

• An old book

• Heart Stamps - mine are from my stash, I’m afraid I don’t know where, probably free with craft magazines over the years.

• Red Ink Pad

• String/twine

• Scissors, pencil, hole punch

• Scrap card

Prepare your book pages

First pull some pages from your book, mine had quite a few just hanging out already!

Trim them to 9cm x 12cm (3.5” x 4.75”) - Actually you can trim them to any size you like, this is just the size I did!

From the scrap card create a v shaped template. Using a template just makes it easier to cut the flag shapes evenly without having to fold the book pages in half and risk creasing them.

Use both parts of the template to make uppy and downy flag shapes. I don’t have any proper words for this! You know what I mean :-D

Decorating the flags

Next stamp hearts onto your book page flags. I found quite a few heart stamps in my stash but I find strong designs with bold lines work best on book pages. Anything to fine or fancy tends to get a bit lost with all the words underneath. I actually have an idea of how to get round that, I’m experimenting with it now so there may be another book page project coming up soon!

Punch holes in the top corners. This is easiest to get even if you have something to line your hole punch up with - like the lines on my cutting mat - then you can line the edge of the bunting flags up with a specific point and keep things even. You can punch 4 or 5 pages at once and then flip the stack over to punch the other side.

To finish, thread the string or twine through the holes and then your Valentine bunting is ready to hang up.

Easy peasy, pretty, cute, quick and an upcycling project - what more could you want! Easy enough for the kids to get involved, if you are looking for something to keep them occupied.

If you don’t want to make your own Valentine Book Bunting I do have some available in my Etsy shop.

Julie

I’ll be sharing this papercraft project at these link ups

You might also be interested in these crafts that use old book pages: