Mosaic Paper Hearts

We made these beautiful mosaic hearts using cut paper and glitter tape on black paper hearts.

We've made mosaics in the past, but these paper mosaics don't take nearly as much time to complete, so we really liked that about using paper.

Before beginning this project, I handed each artist one of my books about mosaics (I have a lot of them) and we examined how mosaics are created and how beautifully the tiles and pieces all come together into one piece of art. 



Our goal would be to combine interesting patterns and colors within a heart symbol while cutting and carefully fitting various shapes next to and around each other just as ancient (and modern) mosaic artists did. 

The trick is to leave a tiny bit of the black background showing around each and every mosaic piece. 

We started with one 9 x 12 piece of black construction paper for our heart-shaped base. The paper was folded in half and cut into the largest heart shape possible.

Then we looked through our paper scraps for patterns and colors that we liked and selected two or three different patterns. We also used at least one solid color. We cut a strip of each chosen paper and cut that strip into triangles, squares of what-have-you to create a pattern.

Then, starting along the inside of the heart shape, we glued down a set of shapes to create a patterned edge. If the artist wanted to try something different, that was okay too. 




This artist created two different color sets and placed them randomly within each side of her heart. Clever!

Artists also had the option of using glitter tape and metallic Washi tape. This artist used violet glitter tape while embellishing the inside of the border with shiny gold tape.

This project took a bit of patience and a lot fine muscle coordination, but our efforts were well rewarded. 

The mosaics were completed within one class period and were quite stunning.

This is my sample, and (of course) I went for the metallic and the glitter tape too!

Our mosaic artists ranged in age from 10 to 16. A "heart-felt" thank you to Deep Space Sparkle for this fun mosaic project idea!