Twig and Cereal Box Heart

This twig heart has been quietly calling my name, wanting to get made for a very long time. Does this happen to you? I bet it does... You see something beautiful that someone somewhere has made, and then begins a whisper deep inside your brain which thereafter endlessly intones: "Michele make me... Michele make me... Michele make me..." until, one day you must inevitably give in. That's what happened with me and this little twig heart o' mine. It was inspired by the beautiful, the wondrous, the plentiful twig hearts that beat in the world.

Here is how I made it!

Tutorial ♡ {Double-Sided} Twig and Cereal Box Heart

You will need:

• A cereal box
• Twigs (I used the small end-twigs from my 2012 Christmas tree)
• A pair of scissors or utility knife
• A pencil and eraser
• White glue
• Glue gun with glue sticks

Step 1: Open and flatten a cereal box. With a pencil, draw a narrow heart outline (as shown below) on one of the cereal box sides. I traced mine in marker to make it visible in the photo but you don't have to.
Step 2: Cut out the outline. I used a utility knife to cut mine out because I wanted to use the central heart later.
Step 3: Glue this heart outline to the printed side of the remaining side of the cereal box. Once again, cut the heart out with a utility knife. This will yield a thick and sturdy (and neutral-coloured on both sides) hearty outline on which to build your twig heart.
Step 4: Gather your cereal box heart outline, small twigs, and your glue gun.
Step 5: Now, the fun part! Begin glueing twigs across the void in the heart, until the void contains as many twigs as seems pleasant to your eye. Once this is done, you will fill in the perimeter (or edges) of the heart with twigs to hide the cardboard. You will need twigs of all different sizes for this last step.

And now hang it up, sit back, and admire!

Oh, and to prove that it is in fact double-sided, here's a pic of the back. Yep, still pretty! I may even prefer it this way...

Sometimes giving in to the voices is not a bad idea.

♥M

You can unearth whole thickets of glorious twig hearts on the interwebs if you look for about half a second. Here are a few that I'm personally smitten with:

Twig Wall Heart via Home and Garden Blog

Painted Twig Heart - The Daily Heart

Forest Glam Valentine's Heart - Re