Heart-shaped sun-catcher

As promised, here are instructions and a picture of the heart-shaped sun-catcher mentioned in my February craft of the month post.

As I mentioned, you will need:

~ clear contact paper,
~ a sheet of red or pink (or whatever color you prefer) construction paper, and
~ various scraps of craft supplies, like paper, tissue paper, lace, ribbons, doilies, sequins, whatever--just make sure your supplies are relatively flat. Oh, and some should be translucent. It also helps if they're all in the same color family (we're using red, pink, and white).

To make it:

1. Fold the construction paper in half and cut out a heart shape.  Keeping the paper folded, cut again, about 1 inch in from your original cut line, so you end up with a heart-shaped frame.

2. Cut a piece of clear contact paper big enough to hold your heart frame.  Peel the paper backing carefully away from the contact paper, place the contact paper sticky side up on your work surface, and place the paper heart frame on top.

3. Now, the fun part--decorate!  Just stick little pieces of whatever craft supplies you gathered to the contact paper inside the heart frame.

4. When you're finished decorating, cut another piece of contact paper, big enough to cover the frame.  Carefully peel the backing off the contact paper and place it, sticky side up, on your work surface.

5. Place your decorated heart, sticky side down, on top of the contact paper and smooth out any wrinkles.

6. Finally, cut away the excess contact paper from around the frame.

7. Hang in a window, where it will catch the light, and enjoy.