Valentine's Ideas #4

The minute I saw these pom pom garlands at Tatertots and Jello, I knew I had to make one.  I believe the idea originated here with Pam Garrison, and they can also be seen on Heather Bullard's blog (I am SO making milagros next!).

  

These are so scrumptious, aren't they?  And make such fabulous holiday or party decorations.  They are easy to make, but time consuming.  That is partially why mine is so short.  That and because the space I am using it is tiny and I didn't want an overwhelming display up there (although I keep thinking it needs one more pom pom to balance it out, what do you think?)  But I see much longer ones in my future!

Here's what  I used:

coffee filters in white (can also use brown - cute!)
cupcake liners in silver, miniature size in white
kraft paper
photocopies of music (Bach's Air on the G String if you must know)
fabric
tulle
tissue paper
beads and pearls
scrapbook paper
glue
twine
scissors
crimping shears, if desired

And here's what I did:

I trimmed down my coffee filters to start with.  Then I matched my kraft, tulle and music paper to be about the same size (I was not exact about it).  I cut some tulle, printed tissue paper and fabric a tad smaller than that.   But I cut the fabric in a square shape with crimping shears, just to throw in some whimsy.  I also cut some black tissue paper into small hearts for the outer edges.  And I crumpled up my papers to give them a more ruffly, shabby look.

I started in the center with the kraft paper and built the pom poms outward from there, facing any prints outward so they could be seen from both sides.  I made mine symmetrical but any haphazard way would look cute and whimsical as well.  I layered 2 small black tissue paper hearts for each end of the pom pom.

Once your pom pom is "built", string it onto your twine 1 layer at a time.  I knotted one end (leaving a tail to hang it with), strung on a pearl or a bead, and then the tissue paper hearts, mini cupcake liner, reg. sized cupcake liner, on upward in size to the center piece of kraft paper.  And then I mirrored the same pattern coming down on the other side, to the layered tissue paper hearts and bead/pearl.  Knotted it again on that side.  I also chose to stagger paper hearts in between the pom poms using scrapbook papers and some heart shaped cutouts I had on hand, to make them sturdier.  I made ribbon tassels for each end using burlap, tulle and a polka dot grosgrain, and hung it up using some fun Eiffel Tower thumb tacks.

Here is how it looks in my niche!

Stay tuned for more fun Valentines Ideas!

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