DIY: Lovey Dovey

My completed yarn-wrapped heart now hangs over the mirror in my foyer. I hate that word, foyer. Makes me sound so fancy. But it sounds better than "front entrance" which is what I initially typed.

I am not, nor have I ever been, and I predict I won't ever be, sappy. When I lose my Burt's Bees, I become chappy; with a tiny amount of wine, I am slaphappy; and my middle-aged lady arms are starting to look flappy; but sappy is not a word that would describe me. Lovey-dovey, mushy, huggy-kissy sweet stuff kinda makes my skin craw, my eyes roll toward the back of my head and my finger make a gagging motion down my throat.

Supplies: Styrofoam heart and pink yarn: Hobby Lobby; baker's twine: Anthopologie, last Christmas; buttons and paper measuring tape: from my stash; vintage photos: from my mom

However, this is not all my fault. I inherited the unsappy gene from my mother. Case in point: If I tell her I lover her, more often than not, I'm greeted with a "whatever." It's just not in us to give a sap. 

So it's kinda funny that I decided to spruce up the pad for Valentine's Day. Honestly, it's because I had so much fun decorating for Christmas, that I didn't want to stop. Never mind that the floors haven't been swept in years and that the laundry is a 6' mountain of funky smells, look! I made a yarn wrapped heart!

Are they not the cutest? My mom brought me a stash of old family photos, some of people neither of us knew. Doesn't it look like he's tickling her ear and she's trying to stop him? I wonder where they are now.

And it was really easy to make. If you've been on pinterest for a millisecond, you've seen yarn-wrapped wreaths. I made one at Christmas...but this one was a wee bit trickier because of the points in the heart. If you've never tried it before, here's how I went about it: tie yarn around styro wreath and wrap yarn around it. That's it! When I came to the points in the heart, I plugged in my hot glue gun and glued in strips of yarn to fill in the gaps. It's really the easiest and most mundane craft ever. 

Another nunno-who-they-are photo from my collection. I love how she's on her tiptoes in her sweet loafers...and is he coping a feel?

When I was finished with that, the fuschia heart was rather boring. So I decided to add some blue striped  baker's twine which I double knotted in the back. I backed the photos onto matte board and hot glued the board to the frame so as not to ruin the photos. The vintage buttons were hot glued on as well. I had initially used a black ribbon to hang the heart but it seemed too domineering. I swapped it out for the paper measuring tape. In all, it looks pretty crafty, but that's okay by me. It'll do for the month of Feb.

Right under the yarn-wrapped-heart mirror in the foyer is a little table with this display. My collection of vintage children's books comes from the throw-away pile at in my school's library.

These little cupid houses have actually been up since Christmas. As if you couldn't tell. I've decided that the hearts on top of them mean I can leave them out just a pinch longer. Again, this idea was pulled from pinterest.

If you have access to clay and a kiln, here's how I created these: for the trunk, place a texture down on your table. I used a large stamp that had a wood grain design. Place the clay on top of the stamp and flatten it with a rolling pin. Remove clay from stamp and roll into a tube shape. For the roof, lay a different textured surface onto your workspace. I like to use vintage lace. Repeat the step of flattening the clay. Now, instead of forming a tube, roll clay into a waffle cone shape. Slip and score to the top. Add details and, viola! A house for cupid!

My Valentine garland. The easiest craft ever.

This is the last of my Valentine's decor, I swear. If I do anymore, my anti-sap status is sure to drop greatly. This here Valentine's garland was the easiest to make. My school has one of the Edison die cut thingies. I die cut some of my scrap booking paper (picked up a JoAnn's)  that I thought might compliment the colors of my living room. Which, as you can see, is just black and white. Easy to match.

If you've never sewn before, this is the project for you. When I got my first sewing machine about 6 years ago, I started by sewing paper. There's no fear in "messing up" and ruining expensive fabric. For this, I just pushed the heart through the machine. To make the blank space, I just continued to pull the heart so the machine would keep intertwining the two threads. Once the space was long enough, I fed the bird through the machine. Simple, right?

So, there you go. Valentine's decor for the un-Lovey Dovey set. I keep thinking to the next holiday I can decorate for...which is St. Patrick's Day, I believe. Nothing is coming to mind. Except to leave my little clay houses out just one more holiday and call 'em Leprechan Houses. That'll work, right?