I am very excited to be sharing with you photos of my new Valentine's mantel display. I have been in my new home for 10 months now and I am enjoying having a fireplace mantel for the first time in my married life (10 years - going on 11). My goal is to create special displays for all the holidays. Some of you may think I'm crazy but not crazy enough to try to do it all in 2013. But eventually, I'd like to have displays to celebrate Easter, Father's day, birthdays, thanksgiving (Christmas is already taken care of with the nativity scene), etc. Do you think my husband would create a Mother's Day Mantel? I'm not going to hold my breath. LOL.
Having one specific place to decorate is nice because I don't have to feel overwhelmed to decorate the entire house - just one focal point.
Since my husband is in the process of building a tree house (tree-fortress), we have lots of scraps of wood piled in the back yard construction zone. I dug through the pile until I found 3 perfect pieces to sand and paint "L, V, & E." I enlisted the help of my artistic 4-year old boy who loves to paint. I set-up a table in the garage for him, covered it well, and gave him one paint color at a time. He did surprisingly well for his age. I only had to smooth out a few lines.
To paint the letters, I sized/transformed letters in Adobe Illustrator and printed them out. I then laid the print-out on top of the wood and pressed down with the tip of a pencil along the outline of the letter. This left just enough of an impression in the wood to give me the outline of the letter to paint. I applied two layers of white paint for each letter.
For the banner I cut out these hearts on my eCraft die cutting machine and glued them to some circle doilies My son, always wanting to help (and spend quality time with me), helped to glue the tiny hearts onto the larger red ones. It was his idea (with is pre-school math skills) to make a pattern with the hearts: 4 on the first one, 3 on the next one, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4.... Later when I added the words a few of the hearts were covered up. So far he hasn't noticed. :)
For this white shadow box, I taped some bakers twine on the back which allowed me to float this photo {Photo Credit: Amanda Star Photography} I love the effect it created - and it's so simple to do!
I found these mail boxes in Target's Dollar Spot (score!!). I was hoping for bigger ones that hinged (which Target and JoAnn's carry) but I couldn't pass up this $1 deal! The white one was perfect for my son and I had to get the pink one for my girly-girl daughter.
These felt roses were cut out with dies from My Favorite Things Stamps.
The kids know, when the flags are Up, they've got mail! I think I better get to the store very soon and pick up some Valentine's treats for their mailboxes!
The full picture....
I'm thinking of embellishing the LOVE sign a bit more. Any suggestions? Do you think the letters need to be outlined? Bling?
What is your favorite holiday to decorate for?
