How to Make Paper Heart Cutouts

Paper hearts can be any size, color and pattern.

Paper heart cutouts are a basic shape suitable for crafts for adults and children alike. The hearts can be used for Valentine's Day or any other occasion. You can cut out just a few hearts for small projects; but if you need many heart cutouts that are a consistent shape and size, use a template, which you can make yourself.

Things You'll Need

• Construction or printer paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Template plastic or cardboard
• Decorative paper (scrapbooking paper, cardstock, tissue paper)

Instructions

1. Fold a piece of construction or printer paper in half and press a crease in the fold so it will hold. Lay the folded paper on a flat table. Starting at the fold and working toward the open edges of the paper, draw one half of a heart. Begin at the top, rounding upward and curving down to a point that ends at the fold. If you wish, the heart can be as tall and wide as the size of your paper.

2. Pick up the paper, keeping it folded smoothly. With scissors, cut out the heart along the pencil line, snipping through two layers of paper at once. Unfold the paper to reveal the heart shape. If you need only a few heart cutouts, repeat steps one and two with additional paper. If you need many heart shapes, move ahead to step three to create a template.

3. Look over the heart cutout you made in steps one and two to ensure the shape looks right and is oblong, wide or evenly shaped according to your preference. Lay the heart shape flat on a piece of template plastic or thin cardboard, such as from a cereal box, and trace the shape onto the plastic or cardboard.

4. Cut the traced heart shape from the plastic or cardboard. Use this template by laying it on decorative paper and tracing around it for as many hearts as you need. Cut out the hearts along the traced lines. Heart cutouts traced from the template don't have a crease down the center, which makes them usable in most any project.

Tips & Warnings

• Paper heart cutouts can be glued onto paper doilies, strung together with yarn to form a garland, glued to handmade cards or used for any other project you wish.

References

• "How to Make Paper Flowers and Party Decorations"; Natalie Morgan; 2005