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Before Ada was even an idea, I saw this project on the blog Veronika’s Blushing and quickly pinned it to Pinterest. I love a good project, and I’m always looking for another reason to use the heart punch I got for my wedding guest book!
As soon as I was pregnant, I knew I’d use that idea for my baby shower cards. After my two baby showers in October 2015, I faithfully put all those cards in a box, put that box in the nursery closet, and waited almost two years. You know, my typical M.O. for the projects I pin to Pinterest.
Now that we are discussing redoing Ada’s closet, the extra randomness I’d stored there needed sorted. Time to get moving! The heart punch made the project super fast. It was easy to see what the heart would look like before I punched it out, and that made it simple to use different portions of some duplicate cards.
My goal was to have a heart from each card I’d saved. I wrote the name of the card-giver on the back of each heart in case Ada ever wants to completely disassemble my creation and check. Probably not a super-useful addition to the project, but it only took a second. I toyed with the idea of writing people’s names on the front, but my handwriting is questionable and I didn’t have cards from absolutely everyone, so I passed (but if you have nice handwriting, something to consider).
I knew I’d be arranging the hearts in a square or rectangle, so I cut out a few extra hearts from a few cards to make sure that I’d have enough to fill gaps if the total number of hearts didn’t easily configure to the shape I wanted. I then arranged the hearts on my bed (like a pro!) to measure how big of a frame would be needed. Sure enough, my favorite arrangement needed one “filler” heart to be complete. Hooray for thinking ahead!
With the measurement in mind, I went to my local art shop to grab a frame. I was going to get white matting or a posterboard, but after discussing my project with a woman at the shop, I decided to use the white foamboard that comes standard in their frames.
I did some slipshod math and decided to arrange the hearts in offset rows to make any errors in measurement less noticeable. Once I had the hearts laid out, I tweaked the arrangement so that colors were better dispersed and the card that said “new daughter” was in the middle.
I glued everything to the foamboard using a child’s gluestick. This was crucial as that glue is very forgiving so you can still slide things over after you’ve placed them. I suppose you could use better glue if your math and measurements were more accurate, but the glass on the frame will hold everything in place just fine so I recommend the weaker glue. Craft projects with some room for last-minute tweaking and adjustments are my kind of craft projects.
Once everything was on the foamboard, I reassembled the frame and ta-da! It’s now on the wall in Ada’s room and I’m glad to check off another project!