upcycling papercraft project

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Then do the same with the other two pieces.

Fold the top (gold) strip down over itself.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Happy crafting! ❤️
Suzanne

I love upcycling. I love being able to turn something that would otherwise be thrown away into something else and giving it a whole new lease of life. Take this adorable owl pop-up box card for example!

Upcycled Owl Greeting Card, 3D Pop-Up Box Card

I created the card from used greeting cards, gift tags and other repurposed materials. This is the front of the original greeting card, and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what I needed to do!

On the original card, the owl in the top right corner was already cut out and raised up on dimensional foam. I carefully removed the owl from the card with the foam still in tact, then carefully cut around the other five owls.

I then used red-liner tape on the back of those five owls to attach them to strips of repurposed acetate (food packaging).

For the box card, the main structure was originally an old book cover and the decorative panels were scraps from another project.

After carefully arranging the position of the owls, I attached them securely to the box card using red-liner tape. I then positioned the owl with the foam right at the back so that he’s looking down over the other owls.

I then cut out four shiny gold stars from a used gift tag and attached two of them to thinner strips of repurposed acetate. I placed one on each side, then glued another one to the back panel using several layers of scrap card to raise it up.

I just love how the owls seem to be looking at each other! They are such characters!

I glued a white panel to the back of the box card and left it blank so that it can be used for a handwritten message.

I then stamped a ‘hello’ sentiment onto a scrap of white card, cut it out in the shape of a cloud and attached it to the front panel using small scraps of card to create dimension. I also added the other gold star and a sparkly gold heart from another used greeting card to complete the design.