I admit, I am completely obsessed with signs as props for holiday photo shoots and soon I will have multiple for every holiday.  They are really easy to make so I thought I would share a quick how-to for all my followers.

You will need:

6″ Cake Board

1 sheet of decorative paper for the background

1 sheet of decorative paper for the accordion medallion

printable heart (click here to download)

(Be sure to print heart file at 100% not scale to fit)

7″ or 8″ cookie stick or wooden dowel

ruler

pencil

scissors

tape

glue gun, double stick tape or adhesive backed velcro

ribbon

circle cutter (optional)

bone folder (optional)

Most of the above materials can be purchased at Michael’s.  The cake boards and cookie sticks are in the baking section and the scrapbooking section has 12×12 decorative papers that are perfect for this project.

Step One

There are two methods for cutting the paper for the background.  Option 1 you can apply glue to the cake board and adhere it to the back of the decorative paper that you have chosen and then trim around the cake board.  This will give you pattern to the edge of the board.  If you prefer a white border around the edge of your sign simply use a circle cutter to cut a circle 1/4″ smaller in diameter than the cake board and then attach.  If you have never used a circle cutter before you may want to practice a few times on scrap paper to get the hang of it.

Step Two

Take your second sheet of patterned paper and draw two lines on the back of the paper, one at 2.5″ and one at 5″.  Cut along the line that is 5″ from the edge of the paper so that you have a 5″ x 12″ strip of patterned paper.

Step Three

Next you are going to accordion fold your 5″ x 12″ strip by creating creases every .75″.  You can do this by hand or you can measure and mark your increments on the back of the paper and crease with your bone folder.  I chose to wing it, but do what you feel is right.  After you have the entire strip folded, cut it in half along the line you drew in the previous step.

Step Four

Using glue or tape attach the two ends of the accordion strips so that they form a circle.  You may need to overlap them to keep the rhythm correct.  After you attach your cookie stick to the back of your cake board you will be left with two pieces, your sign body and your accordion folded circle.

Step Five

You might want to practice this next move before you go breaking out the hot glue.  Set your accordion circle on the table as shown above and then push the top edges towards the table.  This should create your medallion.  Neat, huh?  Once you’ve got that mastered apply a generous amount of hot glue to your medallion base staying at least 1″ from the edges and affix your medallion.

 

Now you just have to use hot glue to affix the printable heart to the center and tie a pretty ribbon bow around the stem and you are finished!

You can also use velcro to affix your printable instead of hot glue if you want the option to be able to change them easily.  Options are endless with this particular craft so have fun and experiment!

This is just one of the cute props that I am using for the Valentine’s Day mini sessions coming up on February 11th and 12th.  You can reserve your spot here!