Papercraft Projects · Upcycling Projects · Valentine's Day

DIY Woven Paper Heart

In this tutorial, you will discover how to turn an old envelope, or some scraps of paper, into a gorgeous woven paper heart! Perfect for Valentine’s Day, they are easy to make, and would look adorable attached to a card or gift for that special someone in your life!

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

To make a paper heart, you will need:

* coloured paper (a different colour on each side works best for this) 80-90gsm recommended
* scissors / craft knife
* pencil
* ruler

You can watch my video tutorial to see me making one of these hearts, or follow the written instructions below:

First, you will need to cut out four strips of paper, each one measuring 17cm x 1cm / 6.7″ x 0.4″. I’m reusing an old envelope for mine.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Take one of the strips and fold it in half to make a crease. Open it out again and fold one end backwards to make an L shape, aligning the edge along the middle crease (see first example pictured below).

Fold the other end forwards and align it along the middle crease (see second example below). Press down firmly.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Fold the left hand end upwards, keeping it in front (see third example above) and the right hand end upwards, keeping it behind (see fourth example above). Make sure the long edges are neatly aligned, and press down firmly.

Repeat with the other three strips of paper.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Next, interlock two of the pieces, making sure that one of them is back to front (showing a different colour, if you have one).

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Then do the same with the other two pieces.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Fold the top (gold) strip down over itself.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Then fold the second (white) strip to the right so that it runs parallel to the previous one you folded, and tuck it behind the the next (white) strip.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Cut the (white) folded strip as shown below and tuck it backwards under the (white) square beneath it.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Cut the end off the (gold) strip, then fold the last (white) strip over it to the left. Tuck this neatly behind the middle (white) strip.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Fold the middle (white) strip back, trim off the excess and tuck it backwards under the (white) square beneath it.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Repeat the process with the other side. I recommend turning the heart over so that you are working on the back of it.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

And here is the finished heart! All of the ends should be neatly tucked in and held in place, so there is no need for any glue.

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Will you have a go at making one of these adorable paper hearts? If so, what colours will you choose?

How to Make a Woven Paper Heart

Happy crafting! ❤️
Suzanne

3D Papercraft Projects · Papercraft Projects

Papercraft Butterflies

My Butterfly Favour Bag has been hugely popular recently and I’ve had several people ask if I have any other butterfly designs that could be added to the bag.

Butterfly Favour Bag by Esselle Crafts

This is something that I’d considered doing when I designed the first one and so, as I loved doing it, I have designed three more!

Set of 4 3D layered butterflies for paper crafts

The first one (that comes with the bag) is a likeness of a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly and the others are likenesses of a Peacock, a Monarch and a Speckled Wood butterfly.

I have the whole set of four butterflies available in my Etsy shop as SVG cut files as well PDFs if you prefer to cut out by hand.

They are so delightfully versatile and, as well as adding them to the favour bags, they can be used for all sorts of different papercraft projects. Here I’ve used two of them on a greeting card. 

Greeting card with two 3D layered butterflies cut from paper

The butterflies are super easy to assemble (consisting of only two layers) and look amazing with the top layer cut out of mirror card.

2 3D layered butterflies cut from paper

I can’t wait to see what you use them for! 🦋

Layered butterflies blog post by Esselle Crafts

Happy crafting
Suzanne