Valentine's Day Love Banner: Tissue Paper Collage Craft for Children

For the past couple years, I think just about every crafter in the blogosphere has posted a tutorial on how to make a sewn fabric banner (AKA bunting). I think banners are a pretty cool and unique way to decorate a house's interior. I know that I have had my eye on a few projects out there to make for myself (here, here, and here).
Being that Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought a banner spelling out the word "LOVE" would be perfect. I modified this trendy craft so that it would be something that my son could partake in. Replacing the fabric, thread, and sewing machine with contact paper, construction paper, tissue paper plus a few tools of the trade, we were set to go!

Material List:

• Tissue Paper in various colors, cut in 1-2" squares 
• Black construction paper cut in quarters
• Clear contact paper
• X-ACTO knife and cutting mat
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• String
• Metal Ruler (optional)

Step one: With the X-ACTO knife, adult cuts out letter shapes from the black construction paper. For straight edges, use metal ruler as a guide. Use cutting mat to protect surface underneath. For the "O", cut out a smaller circle for the center.

Step two: Adult peels the backing off contact paper and places the construction paper FACE DOWN on the sticky surface. Make sure contact paper covers the full surface of black paper. Trim edges so that there is no contact paper extending past the outside edges of the black paper.

Step three: Have child place tissue paper squares one at a time on sticky surface. Encourage them to lay each piece down flat and to overlap the tissue paper so that the entire sticky surface is covered.

Step four: Turn it over to see how it looks. Arrange it in the order that you want it to hang. I decided to add two hearts to each side of the word "LOVE" for decoration's sake.

Step five: Flip up letters vertically so that the backsides are facing up.

Step six: Apply a bead of glue in placement shown.

Step six: Press on string (allow string to be long enough on both ends of banner in order to hang up). Let dry.

Step seven: Hang up in a window or doorway that gets a lot of light shining through from behind. Enjoy your child's craft!