My mantel is full of love

For the past few weeks I've been thinking of how I want to decorate my mantel for Valentine's Day.

Normally I'm a pink & white kind of girl. But this year I decided to step outside of my comfort zone.

It started with a blue picture frame that says "love" all over it. I picked it up last year at Big Lots on clearance. It's been sitting in my bedroom for the past year, just waiting for Valentine's Day.

So that set me on my path to my red & blue "Love" mantel.

I tried it with a few different things & I hated everything I put with it on my mantel. I was starting to panic as I knew I wanted to participate in Beth's Valentine Mantel party. I felt like I was going to show up naked. I couldn't do that. Besides, I'd hate to scare you all. Trust me, you don't want to see me naked.

I even toyed with the idea of not participating. But I had to. I can't miss a mantel party. Or any party for that matter. I'm really a party girl.


Here is the frame that started it all. So I placed it on my mantel, added the red heart plate which came from Target last year. Then I added the grape vine heart wreath (a thrift store find).

Instead of adding a photo, to my frame, a light bulb went off & I added the word "LOVE". Heck, it was already all over the frame. I cropped it from the subway art I already used.

But I got this far in my mantel design and then nothing. I was stuck. I didn't know what else I could use on my mantel.

I added some black candlesticks to the other side of the mantel & dressed up my candles with some burlap & ribbons. But I hated it. So I took them down & didn't even take a photo.

What was I going to do?

I went to bed. So last night as I slept, I came up with all the ideas for my "love" mantel.


It started off with this idea of making paper roses out of book pages. I used a dictionary that I had from Dollar Tree to make the flowers. I hot glued them to some blue card stock I had on hand. Turned out pretty good, if I don't say so myself.

Actually I had this idea last week. I even made most of the roses last week. It just all came together this morning.

I even got brave & skinned some old books I had to prop the paper rose heart picture on. I had picked up the books from the thrift store a few months back for a dime a piece. I just got the courage this morning to "skin" them.

Next I printed out this Valentine subway print I found over at The Hands-On Housewife.

Printed it out in 5x7 size & plopped it into this frame I had. I have about a trillion frames. You see, I'm a frameaholic. I can't seem to pass them up at the thrift store. And I always paint them white or heirloom white.

The red glitter heart I've had for years. I think it came from Target Dollar Spot a few years back. But I'm not sure.

I also made a couple of medallions with my Dollar Tree dictionary. The center of the medallions are actually cupcake toppers. They were a free printable I got from Tip Junkie. I put one on my "Love" frame and the other on my book page heart framed print.

Next I decided I needed something to hang from the mirror in the center of the frame. I had picked up some red & white polka dot cupcake papers from Michael's on clearance the other day. I decided to make a heart wreath.

So I found me some cardboard out in the garage & cut out a heart shape. Painted the front and back blue. And them scrunched up a bunch of cupcake papers & hot glued them on. Easy peasy. I didn't even use the entire package of cupcake papers. I then hot glued on some blue ribbon I had and called it done.

This cost me less than 99 cents to make. I was a happy camper.

I would have painted the cardboard red, but I didn't have any red paint. So I used blue. So you can see the blue back reflected in the mirror.

I was now pretty happy with my mantel. But it was missing something.

A banner. Got to have a "Love" banner.

It was then I remembered I had this old red glitter "Love" banner from Target Dollar Spot. I've had it for years. But it needed something.

So I removed the letters from the red ribbon. Glued them to some blue card stock & cut it out so that some of the blue showed around the edge. And then I hung the letters and hearts from some twine with some little clothes pins with red hearts that I just picked up on clearance at Michael's on Friday night.

I also added this cute Valentine heart that I found in my stash of vintage images on my computer.

And there you have it. My mantel was finally done. And there was peace again throughout the land.

Well I hope that you enjoyed my mantel. The color is quite shocking after having a mostly white mantel for the past few months.

Now be sure and go visit all the other party goers. Don't be a wall flower. Get out & mingle.




Linking to:

The Sunday Showcase @ Under The Table and Dreaming

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatortots and Jello



Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest



Valentine Mantel Party @ The Stories of A to Z

Tabletop Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life