How to Make a Vintage Map Heart Garland

This vintage map heart garland is an update of the repurposed map decorations I made for my home over Christmas.

I can’t get enough of decorating my home with vintage maps. I thought making a heart garland out of old maps for Valentine’s Day would be fun.

Valentine’s day is special in our home. Not because we are soppy romantics. I don’t go in for all the going out for a romantic meal etc. I know I’ve already mentioned it (sorry) with my “Heart String Lights”, but it is my Birthday then.

So it’s fun to have a few decorations around. This year it’s a milestone birthday! I won’t tell you which one, but you can probably work it out.

Decorate Your Home With A Vintage Map Heart Garland

Another excellent reason for making this map heart garland was that it enabled me to play an extra-large heart punch with one of my Christmas presents. Which I also used to make my fabulous watercolour heart wall decoration.

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What you need to make a Map Heart Garland

• Vintage road maps – If you don’t have any thrift stores, eBay is a great place to find them.
• Extra large heart punch
• Red twine/string
• Pritt Glue Stick

How to Make A Heart Garland

Step 1: The paper heart punch is what makes this craft so easy. You could, of course, cut out individual hearts by hand, but that would take forever, and it would be hard to get them all the same.

Punch out lots of heart shapes from your vintage map. You will need six for each map ornament. Then multiply that by how long you want the heart garland to be.

You can make this garland special by using maps of places unique to you.

Step 2: When you have punched all the hearts you need, fold each one in half. Fold down the centerline to the tip of the map heart.

If the maps are only printed on one side, ensure the print is on the inside of the folded heart shapes.

Step 3: Using the glue stick, cover the outside half of one heart and stick it to the outside heart of another. Carry until all six folded hearts are stacked on top of one another.

Step 4: Next, open out the 3d map heart, and cover both end bits in glue. Before glueing the two ends together, place the red twine in the middle.

Step 5: Carry on sticking all the map hearts to the twine. Make sure they are evenly spaced.

It is that simple! I’ve made two, one for the kitchen and another for the mantle in the living room.

I’ve also made map paper Christmas trees using a method similar to these map heart garlands. That time though, the maps were cut into a Christmas tree shape rather than hearts.

If maps aren’t your thing, then you can use this method to make paper heart garlands from other kinds of paper. Valentine’s printed craft paper would work, or even upcycle old Valentine’s cards to make the garland.

There is a free collection of vintage Happy Valentine’s cards and images to print here. Check out more cool Valentine crafts here.

If you love vintage maps as much as I do, you should check out all my other map crafts and DIYs. They include more map-themed Valentine’s crafts, such as my beautiful map roses, map treat bags and map ornaments.

How about framing a personalized map heart as Valentine’s gift?

You might want to check out these pinecone flower heart decorations too.