How to Make Woven Paper Heart Placemats for Valentine’s Day

Before I had kids, I never really decorated for the holidays. Now that I have two little ones, it's so much fun to "go all out" and celebrate every holiday that comes up. Like with Valentine's Day, my kids and I decorate hearts and hang them from the windows, the balcony, and anywhere else that needs a touch of love and color.

Speaking of color, I love a bright, fresh and festive dinner table. For this upcoming Valentine's Day, we made fun woven paper heart placemats for each table setting. If you have little ones that can cut with scissors, glue down shapes, or even just pick out paper patterns, you also can have fun creating this Valentine's craft with your kids. Here's how to make woven paper heart placemats of your own:

Required craft materials:
- 12"x18" construction paper - 2 different colors (we used pink and red)
- glue
- scissors
- old greeting and holiday cards
- optional: permanent markers, sequins
- access to a laminating machine

Steps to make your woven paper heart placemats:

1. Fold one of the large pieces of paper in half ("hamburger style", as we call it). Using scissors, start cutting through the fold toward the other side of the paper, but stop about an inch before you cut through (this will leave a dangling loop). Continue to cut these strips across the rest of the fold, leaving each strip about an inch apart. If desired, cut wavy lines, instead of straight, for a fun woven design. When finished, open up the folded paper "loom" and set aside.

2. Take the other piece of 12"x18" paper, and cut straight lines all the way across the short side of the paper (12" long). Strips can be all the same size, or of various widths.

3. To create your woven paper placemat, weave each strip in and out of the lines of the paper loom. Push the woven strip all the way to the edge, then add a drop of glue at each end. Continue weaving paper strips until the whole loom has been filled.

4. While the glue dries, look through old greeting cards for brightly colored pieces, then cut out hearts of many different sizes.

5. Glue the largest hearts onto your woven paper background, then glue smaller hearts on top of these. Add as many hearts as you'd like.

6. If desired, add sequins or words to the placemat. I cut out the letters to spell "love," then drew over the letters in marker and added more sequins.

7. After my woven paper placemats dried, I then took them to a local office store, where I had them laminated.

For a colorful, long-lasting Valentine's Day table decoration that won't get ruined - due to being laminated - this is a fun craft both you and your kids will love. For a custom twist, try adding each family member's name to a different placemat, or the words that mean "love" in different languages.