"You look so cute from behind!"

I love to be in my craft room late at night. I find the stillness soothing and the cast of shadows beautiful. A chance to finish my Valentine's Garland. Oh how I love the way it turned out.

PREPARATION:
Remove all decoration from a vintage plastic Christmas garland (Etsy) and THREAD WITH FISHING LINE to support weight, (or use plastic chain from hardware store). The figure eight links allow items to hang in front or behind each other creating movement instead of straight in a line. Hot glue floral decoration at intervals.

REPETITIVE FOCAL POINTS:
MAIN FOCAL POINT: Divide garland into equal visual sections. There should be one main focal point for each section. Mine are large paper Valentines I have made featuring the faces of the children.

  
SECONDARY FOCAL POINT:
I have hung one school Valentine from the same line in each section. This cute little rabbit is from Hallmark. They each feature a distinctive large red heart.

SOMETHING RED:
In each section I have hung the sweetest little playing cards that are both red and CUTE with their Dutch figures.

CUTE FROM BEHIND:
I love the backs of Valentines almost as much as the front! There are the most wonderfully printed images in RED that absolutely make me giddy with joy. I have backed them with red card stock. My husband will say to me, "Don't you think we have enough RED in this house?" to which my reply is, "You can NEVER have too much RED!"

MORE RED:
I found shiny red cupids to hang at JoAnn Fabrics, small sized Christmas ornaments from my crafting stash; and I hung back on my garland red reindeer that came with the garland. This is after all a Side by Side Holiday!

SOMETHING SMALL:
I have cut from Valentines from the 1940's called A-meri-Cards, (or letters cAc) the sweet little children that can be found. Their faces are very distinctive. They are my very favorite Valentines of all! Straight hangers created from wire instead of rings are used to allow them to hang at varying lengths to fill in spots where needed.

Yes, it took me awhile to purchase, make, and gather together the elements for this garland, but it is one I will love to use for years to come.  And because you might not recognize which Valentines to purchase that will be Cute from Behind, I have scanned some for you!