Jan 30, 2012

When life gets tough, the tough get crafty...



I haven't felt a creative bone in my body for months now, but I thought I could use some craft therapy.  To be honest, I didn't think of it myself, but took the challenge of an acquaintance after I posted on a local Facebook swap group that I belong to that I was in search of a Valentine's Day wreath.  She showed me the one she made and so I set out to try to copy it.

I discovered it is a little late to be shopping the craft stores for Valentine's Day supplies so I didn't get as large a styrofoam heart as I wanted.  The one I got is about 13 inches across.  I would have preferred something up to twice that size.  Then I bought a large bag of red glass stones, the kind you see in vases or in fish tanks, a roll of red tulle, (my friend used red cellophane) and a roll of ribbon.  I already have a hot glue gun and glue sticks.



So first I covered the styrofoam heart with the tulle, tucking in the end on the back with a little dab of hot glue.  Then I simply covered the entire heart, front and back, with the stones.  You wouldn't have to put them on the back, but I'm just weird that way...




In all seriousness, this project took less than an hour to complete.  The glass beads made the wreath very heavy, so I was hesitant to put it on the outside of my front door.  We are having a lot of strong winds and some snow lately.  So I decided to find a place indoors to hang it.  This is a funky old desk in our living room, where I am also displaying some vintage valentines I got from the flea market a while ago...





To complete my Valentine's Day decor, I added a store bought banner...


And now will someone please pass the chocolates?

What are YOU doing to decorate for February???

4 comments:

Rebecca said...

That wreath really "pops" against your cabinet! I like it.

Not much here. I usually leave the red candles out (from Christmas) and have a few heart-shaped items that I will place strategically around the kitchen/dining areas & living room.

Of course, I'll put an appropriate quote up on our chalk board... and feature valentine-related riddles on my facebook page.

Diana said...

I love the heart Jacquelyn. The glass beads really make it beautiful.
I used to decorate for Valentines day when Katie was younger. One year we colored and cut out at least a hundred different shaped and sized paper hearts and taped them all over the frontroom windows. It looked really neat.
Since my kids have all grown, I don't decorate much anymore.
Except for Christmas, I gave most of my decorations to my son and his wife. They have two small children so I figure they may as well get some use out of them.
Love Di ♥

Lois Christensen said...

That looks really pretty! AND I have the same blue plates! My mother used to receive one every year from a member of our church and she has around 20 of them and when she moved into her new house she gave me around 6. I love them! Enjoy your day!

Kaye Swain - SandwichINK for The Sandwich Generation said...

Oh Jacquelyn, what a cute wreath! I'm going to share this post Saturday at SandwichINK for my Valentine blog post.

I so understand the shortage of time. This has been an extra busy year (couple of years, really!) for me and my family as well. So we have done much less than the norm for Valentine's Day. But I was happy to get Valentine's done with the grandboys.

And I'm loving visiting various sites, including yours, and enjoying the fun Valentine's ideas, crafts, parties, and posts - and someday, in His perfect timing, I'll do even more. :)

Loved your next post too, about helping others and being so blessed by it even in the midst of your own trials. What an encouragement - and such a great example of your mom and her sweet spiritual legacy! Praying for y'all.

Happy Valentine's Day :)