Danish Woven Paper Heart Baskets - Make Them Unique With These Simple Tricks

Creating variety in weaving patterns and the tops of Danish woven heart baskets is easy! And fun! Begin with this tutorial to make Danish Woven Heart Baskets and after you have mastered the technique, move on to adding your own creative touches!

While some of these may look complicated - they are easy!

The easiest way to change your basic heart is to change the dimensions of the cut lines!

Accuracy is key - nice straight lines. Measure carefully and draw your lines on the back of your paper heart before cutting. No eyeballing - you will most likely end up with this uneven result!

My first attempt - where I learned a few tricks I am passing on today!!

Another important key to weaving hearts - place one heart half on top of the other and mark the point where they meet. This line is a very important line during the cutting process. Make a similar mark on both sides of the heart.

Cut along the lines you have drawn and then cut just a tiny bit (1/8" should do it) beyond the line drawn near the top of each side of the heart.

And this is very important: Either cut your lines with a sharp craft knife ot sharp scissors. But whichever you use, be sure to hold your heart very firmly so the paper does not slip. (Again - refer to the "wrong way" image above!!)

Turn your heart so rights sides are facing out and weave!

Scissors designed for making pretty edges on cards are great tools for adding decorative edges to the top edges of hearts.

Tracing cookie cutters can work as well.

I even used the little bits designed for cutting holes in my snowflake cookies!

While not every scissor blade design is great for this application, some are perfect! I love how the wavy line translates into a very cool looking basket!

While cutting, I took extra care to be certain that the cut was the same on every "leg" - ie. beginning the cut at the bottom of the heart in exactly the same place on the scissor blade.

The simpler three or four equal divisions cut is probably the best option when using the decorative edge scissors in this way.

Using paper with printed designs can result in some very pretty hearts as well. There is a brief tutorial for weaving irregular hearts at the bottom of this post exploring the use of recycled papers for Danish paper heart baskets!

And I am thinking those of you with Cuttlebugs can create some very cool hearts with texture!!

Now - go play! Make a bunch! Hang them in windows (as the Danish do as a sign of welcome) or create a garland or wreath or mobile! I promise you will have fun!

If you happen to like playing with paper, here is a tutorial for making a simple cut paper Danish tree.

And this Scandi-inspired tree is the perfect way to display a collection of woven paper hearts!