Valentine Mantle

I thought I would show you all today the simple Valentines mantle I put together. Now usually I am not one to decorate for a small holiday like Valentines day. My husband and I don't even usually celebrate it, or if we do, we celebrate it on a different day that week to avoid all the craziness. So needless to say when I got the hankerin' (yes that's totally a word) to do something crafty I decided to dress up my somewhat sad looking mantle. This was quite the challenge for me seeing as how I don't own any pink or red decor, and nothing with hearts! I was also determined to do this without spending any money. gulp.

 

So my little mind went to work and I started scouring Pinterest for DIY ideas. I knew from the beginning I didn't want to go too Valentiney (I have a tendency to make up my own words) with the all pink and little cupids, especially since I didn't have any red or pink decor to start with. So I started on the heart garland.

 

 

I hand cut all the hearts from some red and pink scrapbook paper as well as some old book pages. The book pages totally gives it a more vintage/neutral look. It was pretty time consuming but ended up being my favorite part of the whole mantle!

 

I had some left over hearts so I used those on my candles for my "height" section of the vignette. I cut out slightly larger hearts from book pages to outline the red hearts and to add a little more of my vintage love. I taped them to each other and then to the candle. Then secure them with a little bit of jute twine.

 

 

Next I started working on the XOXO canvas. I took a blank canvas I had in my stash and started covering it with more book pages. I then used my Cricut to cut out the X's and O's and taped them on. I wrapped some coordinating twine to match the candles.

 

 

A few nights previously my husband went to Michaels to get some craft paint and he spotted some little wooden signs. So he bought me a few of them, one being this little Love sign. If that isn't love I don't know what is!! So I painted it red, and put it front and center. I stacked it on a craft paper covered book and the only little pink book I had that just so happens to be about cupcakes. That's Valentiney right?

 

 

 

I might add a few things here and there as the week goes on. My Camellia bush is just starting to bloom in the front yard so hopefully I can add of few of its white blooms soon. But overall I'm pretty happy with it, especially since I used only what I had around the house. That's the beauty though of being a DIYer at heart, your up for the challenge of making things out of nothing!

 

 

 I added a few more things to the coffee table and brought out my pink pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I fell in love with this pillow from TJ Maxx a while ago and bought it even though it doesn't match anything else I own. he he Maybe it will be useful down the road if we have a little girl in the house, but for now it fits right in with the Valentines Decor. :)

 

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