How to Make an Easy Yardstick Valentine’s Swag

A yardstick is the easiest way to make a beautiful swag for your front door for this coming Valentine’s Day! Read on and follow the step by step instructions to make your own!

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Supplies for making your swag:

Yardstick with brass ends with hole for hanging
Pipe cleaners
Deco Mesh
Valentines ribbon
Red and white plaid ribbon
Red and white striped ribbon
Glitter hearts
Decorative hearts
Rotary cutter
Self healing cutting mat

Step One:

The first thing you will want to do is to take your yardstick and pipe cleaners. Take a white pipe cleaner and wrap it tightly around the yardstick pulling the pipe cleaner tight and twisting it tight. Pull the ends to the right of the yardstick. Repeat the same step to the left side of the yardstick. Take one red pipe cleaner and wrap it around the yardstick, twist tightly and pull the two ends of the red pipe cleaners up in the center of the yardstick. Continue doing this all the way down the yardstick. Space the pipe cleaners about 4 inches apart. I ended up with 10 of the 3 pipe cleaner ties.

You can set that aside.

Step Two:

Using 12 inch wide deco mesh, Cut 20 pieces of white 12 inch deco mesh 24 inches long. Cut 10 pieces of 12 inch red deco mesh also 24 inches long. A rotary cutter is the easiest way to cut deco mesh. You can cut it on a self healing cutting mat.

Step Three:

Take a piece of white deco mesh and roll each end of it a couple of times and then squish up the middle of it.

Start with the one piece of white deco mesh, take the rolled and squished up piece of deco mesh and take two ends of pipe cleaners and twist them tightly around that piece of deco mesh. Next do the second piece of white deco mesh and then do the same with the red deco mesh with the red pipe cleaners in the middle.

Move on down the yardstick repeating this process.

Step 4:

Cut 20 pieces of one pattern of ribbon in 12 inch pieces.
Cut 10 pieces of another pattern of ribbon in 12 inch pieces.
(Alternatively, you can use 3 different patterns of ribbon.)

Make sure you use wired edged ribbon for this!

Cut the ends of each pieces of the ribbon into a “V” or “swallow tail” as shown below.

Step 5:

Take 3 pieces of ribbon and attach it in the middle of each of the red deco mesh, securing it with the remaining ends of the red pipe cleaners. After you have attached all of the ribbons down the swag, go back and fluff the ribbons, spreading it out and bending the ribbons in a pleasing way.

Step 6:

Add some hearts to your swag. I found mine at Michaels. I cut the stems down and used the ends of the red pipe cleaners to attach the hearts to your swag.

Step 7:

Take one pipe cleaner and feed it through the hole on the end of your yardstick. Twist it around itself to make a circle or loop to hang your swag.

Hang your swag and enjoy!

Special note:

This same method can be used to make a centerpiece or a display for on a mantel or above your kitchen cabinets. You can also attach this to your stair railings for seasonal decoration.