Spoon Heart Valentine's Day Garland

If the title of today's post made you furrow your brow and go, "huh?" I wouldn't be surprised :). What the heck is a spoon heart garland you ask? Well, allow me to give a little background and explain. Remember last year when I made plastic spoon flowers and attached them to a vase a-la-Anthropologie?

And I got to thinking...maybe plastic spoons could be made into other shapes too. Since Valentine's day is coming up and all, how about making them into some hearts? Then, to take it a step farther, since I have a love affair with garlands (as evidenced by this book page one and last year's recycled magazine page heart one), I decided to string these guys together and make them into a garland too.

Want to make one yourself? It's pretty simple!

Supplies needed:

• Plastic spoons
• Tea light or candle
• Matches
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Twine or string
• Scissors

Step 1: Gently heat the spoon over the tea light to melt the plastic at the intersection of the handle and bowl in order to remove the handle. 

Obligatory disclaimer: be careful when working with open flames. Plastic is flammable and will catch on fire! I slowly heated the spoon so that the plastic would melt, but not burn.

Once the plastic gets hot enough, you'll be able to twist the handle off of the bowl easily.

Step 2: Melt two spoons along one edge until plastic starts to melt, and then stick them together in a heart shape.

It can take a little finessing to get them to stick together properly, but after making a couple, you'll get the hang of it!

Step 3: (Optional) Melt outside edges slightly to mold spoons into more heart-like shape.

Step 4: Paint spoons.

I used some coral paint I had left over from a Valspar test pot and a cheapo paintbrush to paint these guys. I painted both sides and really only needed one coat to get good coverage. This paint job wasn't meant to be super durable, so I wasn't very precise with it. :) If you need a more durable finish on plastic, there are paints made specifically for that purpose - this latex paint isn't one of them!

Step 5: Hot glue string to backside of hearts and hang.

I used embroidery thread, but you can use any string for this. I put a dab of hot glue on each side of the heart and then pressed the string into the glue. By doing it this way, the string formed a loop at the top, which made it easy to make sure they hung evenly. I lined them up on another long piece of embroidery thread and once I had the spacing right, I tied a knot in the string to keep them spaced out evenly.

The garland looked like this once I finished it:

Pretty cute, huh? The melting process made the spoon hearts a little bit imperfect, but I actually like that! They're certainly not store-bought :). I'm totally digging my unique little piece of inexpensive Valentine's Day decor!

Are you decorating for Valentine's Day? I think it's fun to add little touches of pink and red around the house and buy into the sappy romantic feel for a couple of weeks each year!

---------

linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base, Naptime Creations, Remodelaholic, Work it Wednesday, Living Well Spending Less