Spread the Love

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Okay, maybe I'm a little biased because I'm with the love of my life and he treats me very well throughout the year AND on this special day. But regardless, I wish there was "Valentine's Day Season" like there is "Christmas Season" because I could keep up the hearts and other V-day decorations for months. I wish I had expendable cash to spend on pink and red flowers for throughout the apartment and I can't wait to pack heart-shaped PB&J's in kids lunch boxes someday. I might whip up a batch of Red Velvet cupcakes for J and I (and to share) and maybe I'll find a way to include Ollie in the festivities.

Here is the decorating I've put together for this year in our apartment. Our lovely entry shelf that I decorated for Christmas, fall, and introduced when we first moved in is now the lovely home to a few easily updated candles. I had three plain red candles laying in a drawer and with a little white card stock and thread I love how they turned out. I simply cut out the paper hearts, used a needle to thread them on the string and wrapped them around the candle. I attached the ends by melting the candle just slightly on the side, sticking the end of the string through the melted wax and letting it harden over.

Also using card stock and some red construction paper I made an easy paper mache "XO" for our entertainment center. They were completely free and gave me something to do to occupy my time one afternoon. Once they were dry I covered the outside with a couple coats of modge podge to give them a glossy finish.
I've also redone the frame that hangs above our couch a couple times before (same previous links as the shelf from above) and I have to admit, I felt like I was back in elementary school making this project. I used an empty frame, removed the glass and placed scrap book paper on the inside. To make the heart I cut squares out of red tissue paper that were approximately 1.5 inches on all sides. Then using the end of an unsharpened wood pencil (you know, the classic yellow ones) I wrapped the square around the base, dipped it in a little watered-down Elmer's glue and placed it onto the cardboard heart I had cut out. I repeated and repeated the process making sure to glue them close together so you couldn't see the white cardboard from underneath. I glued the finished cardboard-heart combo to the scrapbook paper and used some left-over red ribbon to hang it. I love the finalized texture of the paper heart.
My final project, that I finished just yesterday, was this love-ly (haha get it, love, Valentine's day.... I'm dumb) throw pillow. I got the image and printed it from this site. It's supposed to be used inside a cute frame but I decided to use Freezer Paper stenciling (I wrote a tutorial here) and put it on a pillow instead. A little scrap muslin fabric to make a pillow case, some black, red and white fabric paint mixed together and some hand-stitching later and I had this cutie. I was able to reuse my Christmas red and white pillow and I love them together. I like the "love" pillow enough that it might end up on our bed after V-day.

So what about you, do you decorate for Valentine's Day?

Do you love the love holiday?