DIY Valentine's Day Wreath

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always felt awkward when it came to this holiday; something about gushing over your partner and sitting there while they gushed over you made me not want to go "all out" for this holiday. I suppose it's stemmed from those elementary school years when we handed out valentines to everybody in class and if you were lucky enough to be "with" someone that year, you expected and got something extra. It was 6th grade when I was given one of those extra large Hershey's kisses, a flower, and a stuffed animal from a red-headed boy I crushed on. I was on top of the world! But it wasn't long before I was being put down in front of my peers and getting snickers and jeers about it. I then couldn't enjoy the gifts I received and actually felt guilty and 'bad' about having them! Were they kids being kids? Maybe. Retrospectively, I think they were jealous and that was their best way to deal with it. Either way, I clearly still recall this memory as if it were yesterday and perhaps this is the reason why, when I receive gifts of any sort on this holiday, I love it but receive it with a grain of salt... awaiting some unplanned moment of disappointment.

So now that I've depressed you...! (Ha ha!) In all sincerity, I've since enjoyed this day once I started dating men for whom I was on the hunt for "marriage potential". Now that I'm married to a wonderful and loving man, I suspect I will be more and more involved in celebrating this (very commercialized) holiday.

Around the Internet, craft stores, and neighbor's doors, I've noticed that wreaths have been a go-to form of celebrating all holidays and seasons in the year. I saw a lot of beautiful wreaths for fall and Christmas but I was in no position to attempt an art project I had zero experience in. However, I want to learn and I want to practice making wreaths because -darn it- I want to make some pretty awesome fall/winter wreaths this year!

So here is my Valentine's Day wreath, made by moi!

I bought 2 of the larger Dollar Tree wreaths (shown below), unwrapped one of them and then re-wrapped the branches around the 2nd wreath to make it appear heartier.

I then stained the wreath using this technique from homeheartcraft.com (saw it on Pinterest).It did the job and gave it a great rustic look. But I have to be honest, I hated the smell of the steel wool with the vinegar... I felt like I was tasting it, yuck! I don't think I will use this techniques (as useful as it was for my project) again and instead just buy a small can of stain. I can still smell the steel wool on the wreath when I have it near my face!

After the wreath was dried, I gathered the fake flowers I got from both the Dollar Tree and Michaels and arranged them on the wreath. I cut the stems so I could easily push them through the wreath and wrap to hold in place. I glue-gunned excess leaves to fill it out and give pops of green. Then I painted the 'love' plaque I bought from Michaels red and hot-glued it to the wreath. Done!

Aside from the few days it took to get the staining right, all the arranging and hot-gluing only took a couple hours and was hung up on the door well before my hubby came home from work <3

Do it Yourself Family Name Banner

One of the 1st projects I wanted to do after our wedding was celebrate my new last name. While browsing the infamous Pinterest, I came across a DIY project from the one and only Michaels website: Family Name Banner . Project materals are:

-Wood plaques in size, shape, quantity you need for each letter of word/name
-Wood letters small enough to fit inside face of plaques
-Paint or Spraypaint
-Cardstock or patterned paper
-Glue
-Ribbon (or consider rope or twine?) long enough for a few inches above/below the plaques with 1/2" gaps inbetween the plaques
-D ring
-Something to hang it on
-Stapler

I followed the directions almost exactly as posted, so you should too and get the same results! The only variance I came across was finding a darn "D" ring. I couldn't find it. Nope. So what does a girl do when she's tired of making laps around a craft store finding something that isn't there? She improvises! I grabbed 2 of my metal hoop bracelets and folded the ribbon over them, then stapled the ribbon together. I hung the banner on a picture frame hook that I had also painted black to hide the 'metal' appearance. Here's my end results:

 

I used leftover ribbon from the giftwrap I saved from wedding presents, something to give it a sentimental tie-in from the wedding. To hide the appearance of the staples from the ribbon, I placed a stick-on gem that I had leftover from a DIY bridesmaid gift project.

So while I was doing this project, I decided to create another one that would go with the colors of our living room.

For this one, I spray painted the plaques a metal brown color and chose different, yet complimenting, cardstock. I bought white letters and retouched the scratches with white paint. I also glued leftover lace I had from my DIY lace wedding shoes on top of the ribbon for a more feminine look. A bow made of more lace on the top hook perfects the look! As you can see, I like to recycle all my leftover materials into new projects.

Needless to say, my husband came home to both on the walls and loved them!