We may not be getting a paid holiday off work for Valentine’s Day but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of it by injecting a little festivity into your workplace décor. From how to make 3D paper hearts to a folded paper heart garland, we’ve pulled together 3 easy DIY office decorating ideas you can use to bring some heartfelt flair to your workspace.
As an added bonus, you’ll be able to find most of the needed supplies around your office, so there’s no need to spend much on these last-minute crafts. Save those precious dollars to grab yourself a pizza and rent a romantic comedy (or maybe a slasher film, depending on where you stand on the whole Valentine’s thing).
What’s the best kind of glue to use for paper crafts?
What’s the best kind of glue to use for paper craftsFor some reason, glue scares people. Maybe it brings up some grade school nightmares of wet white glue that gets on everything. But now that you’re a grownup, you have better options, and it’s time to embrace glue. While almost any normal white glue will work on paper, our favorite option for simple paper crafting is Zip Dry by Beacon Adhesive. It’s a bit spendy compared to regular cheap white glue, and you can usually only find it in craft stores. But Zip Dry is ideal for working with paper projects as it provides a strong, permanent hold that dries nearly immediately, without causing those dreaded moisture wrinkles often produced by white glue.
If you can’t get your hands on a bottle of Zip Dry, it’s worth noting traditional liquid white glue is still usable – just remember that less is more, and thinly-spread glue prevents wrinkled messes.
Another frustration with white glue is it won’t immediately dry; and in that case, you may find you could use a helping hand keeping your pieces in place while they adhere to one another. Try using paperclips or small binder clips to temporarily hold glued pieces of paper together as they dry. They’re as good as an extra pair of hands or two to ensure your project stays together as the glue dries!
3D Paper Hearts Instructions
String up a single 3D heart or go all out and make an entire curtain to cover your office door – these dimensional creations are surprisingly simple, so we doubt you’ll want to stop at just one.
What you need:
- 3D Paper Heart Template
- Red file folders (one per 3D heart)
- A length of baker’s twine, about 2 feet long
- Pen or pencil
- Scissors
- Hole punch
- Paper plate (standard dinner size)
- Glue
- Paperclips or small binder clips (optional)
No red folders on hand? Use colored paper or cardstock instead. Just fold the sheet of paper in half lengthwise and continue as normal.
How to make it:
- Print the heart template out at actual size and cut it out.
- Starting near one end of the folder, place the heart template on top of the folded edge of your folder so that the straight edges align.
- Trace around the curved edge of the heart template. Repeat this process 3 more times until you’ve traced 4 hearts total, leaving a small space between each heart as you go.
- Cut out each heart and unfold them slightly to an approximate 90-degree angle.
- Take two of the heart shapes and align one half of each backside together. Glue in place.
- Repeat step 4 with the remaining two heart shapes until you have two pairs of glued heart shapes.
- Turn one heart shape over so that the flat backside is facing up. Apply a thin line of glue along the seam down the center back. Place one end of the baker’s twine in the line of glue so that the extra length of twine extends up from the top center of the heart shape.
- Apply glue to the entire back of the heart shape. Align the remaining glued heart shape on top of the first and press to adhere, forming a complete 3D paper heart shape.
- Repeat the previous steps two or three more times to create additional hearts, gluing them in place along the length of twine a few inches apart from one another.
Folded Paper Heart Garland Instructions
Garlands are crowd-pleasers that never go out of style. Put a heart-shaped twist on this traditional party decoration and drape it across your whiteboard or along your cubicle wall to let everyone know you’re no Valentine’s Day scrooge. True love is real.
What you need:
- Red cardstock or paper, letter size (one per heart)
- A length of baker’s twine, about 1 or 2 yards long
- Pen or pencil
- Scissors
- Glue
- Paperclips or small binder clips (optional)
How to make it:
- Place one piece of red paper flat on your work surface. Set the paper plate face down on top of the paper, centered vertically and horizontally (the edges of the plate will hang over the left and right edges by about an inch). Use a pen or pencil to trace around the edges of the paper plate.
- Cut away the top and bottom edges of the paper along the traced lines. Your paper should now resemble a circle with the top and bottom edges sliced off.
- You’ll be folding the entire piece of paper back and forth in accordion-style, just like you did as a kid to make paper fans. To get started, place the paper shape in front of you so the straight edge is facing you. Fold up the bottom straight edge about 1/2” and crease.
- Flip the paper over and fold again about ½”, this time in the opposite direction. Continue folding the entire length of paper accordion-style until you reach opposite edge.
- Find the center point of your folded paper and fold the entire piece in half onto itself, so that the center edges meet one another. Here you can see how you’ve created a heart shape. After pinching the bottom to secure the heart’s bottom point, glue the innermost edges to one another at the center of the heart. Hold or clip the glued edges in place until completely dry, using paperclips or binder clips to assist as needed.
- Repeat the previous steps until you have created the desired number of hearts for a garland; we recommend at least 3. To assemble the garland, use a hole punch to punch two holes in each heart – one in each “hump” along the top of the heart.
- To finish, thread the hearts onto a length of baker’s twine through their punched holes, and hang to display.
Bonus Idea: Festive Valentine’s Coffee Stirrers
We couldn’t resist one last idea – and this one is so simple, we know you won’t be able to, either. Whether you display a bouquet of them on your desk or offer them up to your favorite coworkers to stir their tea, these adorable heart-shaped stirring sticks are sure to garner more than a few cries of “Oh, how cute!” Who’s the Valentine superstar? You are.
How to make it:
- Cut a small heart shape from a red folder, paper, or cardstock.
- Use scissors or a craft knife blade to cut the end of a coffee stirring straw or cocktail straw, about ½” down.
- Slide the heart snugly into the slit you created in step 2.
Happy crafting! Be sure to share your creations with us on Instagram @bluesummitsupplies, and don’t forget to check out our Valentine gift ideas for the office, where you can find a roundup of helpful and amusing ideas on what to give your favorite (or least favorite) coworkers this year.
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