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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Making Valentine's Day Decor Personal

We are continuing to prepare for the installation of wood flooring in two rooms at our house and it's a little messy.  We now have 2 computer desks in our dining room. Our breakfast room and half of our garage are full of furniture.  With all the preparations going on for the wood flooring install I don't have much time to update the seasonal decor.  This time of year I can only think of two options - I could choose a winter theme mantle or go with a Valentine's Day theme which is right around the corner.  And who doesn't like to concentrate on LOVE?

So first I ran around the house looking for items I could use and I didn't find too much, but I ran across a cardboard heart shaped box stuck in a drawer. I don't even know where it came from.  That gave me the idea to pick up some other cardboard boxes and letters and some small wood hearts and cover the front of them with scrapbook paper.



After tracing the items I wanted to cut out onto the back of the scrap book paper, I cut them out. I mixed white glue with a little water and used a small paint brush to coat the box lids, one side of the wooden hearts and the front side of the cardboard letters. Then I smoothed the paper onto the cardboard and wood items.  I found that as they dried they started to bubble up, so I went back and coated the front side of the paper also and this solved the problem.  I especially love how the letters turned out. I didn't want them fancy because I have fond memories of valentines cut from construction paper from many years ago in elementary school. Homemade Valentines are so sweet!


Since I came up a little short on items around the house, I looked on the Internet for print outs, but then I had a better and easier idea.  I have a big box of cards in the closet - cards my very own sweetheart and I have been giving to each other for 33 years.  This comes up to 66 valentines if we had each given each other only ONE every year. Seriously, I have a LOT of Valentine cards. What could be better for Valentine's Day?  My first thought was to just put them in a basket, but I found there were so many of them and some of them were so beautiful, that I set them in and around the other items in our display - including some wedding photos.  Then put another stack of cards in a basket. I was creating a very personal Valentine's display.


My Holiday Spice Dishes have hearts on some of the smaller plates, so I pulled one of those out first and they are a great color match for these heart ramekins I found at World Market.  I left some of my regular decor in place on the china cabinet, like the French plate, because Paris is the City of Love, right?



Thinking more on the "personal love" theme, I got out our wedding memory album and opened it up to the page with our wedding invitation.  I put it on the coffee table along a Bible opened to I Corinthians 13, the love chapter and a bluebird of happiness candle holder.  I included this little sign about friendship because not only is SuperDave my very best friend, but love isn't only romantic.  We all need the love of good friends.




So I'm pretty happy with the progress so far and I should probably leave well enough alone, but once the creative idea wheels start turning.....Now I am looking for the sheet music to "our song".  That will be the final piece of my very personal Valentine's decor.

Laura


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5 comments:

Shenita @ Embellishments by SLR said...

What a beautifully, sentimental way to decorate for Valentine's Day!! I love all of the personal touches! Very pretty!

Maureen Wyatt said...

Wow, this is the sweetest Valentine display I have seen yet! It's wonderful that you have kept all those cards and what fun to read them all over again. You have a very special relationship and it shows in the care you have put into this show of love!

Sooner Laura said...

Thanks for stopping by, ladies and especially thanks for the lovely comments. I once put all our Valentine's to each other on the bed for when my sweetheart came home. They covered the WHOLE bed!

Diane | An Extraordinary Day said...

I love your cut out LOVE letters...so pretty....and the way you personalized your decor with old cards, and scripture, and photos. How very romantic and meaningful.

P.S. I looked around the blog and I saw that you have 2 tabby cats too. Yours look like mine. Sweet.

elizabeth said...

What great personalized ideas! Thanks so much for your kind comment on my Valentine mantel post.