A very crafty Valentine’s Day

Hi friends! It’s finally February!!! Which also means, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! And you know me, I’ll take any excuse I get to get crafty! This year, I wanted to try something new and rather than make a YouTube video, I decided I’d make lots of little videos on Instastories. I’m posting one DIY every day this week, Monday-Sunday. So I highly suggest you follow my Instagram page if you haven’t done so already! I’m also going to save the videos in my Highlights on my Instagram profile so you can rewatch them whenever you want. I hope these inspire to create your own little Valentine’s Day decor!

 

You’ll get a little sneak peak of all the DIYs on this blog post since all the decor items I used this year, I made myself and will be sharing with you throughout the week. Now there’s a lot to show you, so lets get started, shall we?

You might remember last year’s blog post – it was the very first post I wrote, but my blog wasn’t live at the time – so if you do, you’re definitely an OG and I love you for that! But yes, it was also in front of a fireplace, but in Switzerland since we went skiing the week of Valentine’s Day. I love the feel of a fire burning for a romantic night in. Its got such a heartwarming, cozy and relaxing feel to it. I highly encourage you to make use of that fireplace you never even knew worked. 😉

 

Of course, I had to dress up that mantel. And oh did I go all out. My sister was like ” there’s way too much going on here!”. Maybe there is, but either way, I still love it all. And I especially love how little it took to create this look. The main “ingredient” of all my DIYs is paper – red, pink and white.

 

First, I made two different styles of garlands. One is entirely made of paper in the shape of little hearts. Super easy! I cannot wait to show you! For the other own, I used a string of battery operated fairy lights with clips (which I bought from Flying Tiger) and created the letter boards to spell out “I Love You”. Of course, you can write out whatever you want.

For the mantel, I made this flower centerpiece out of red-ish tulips. I wanted to buy red roses, but couldn’t find some anywhere at a reasonable price so opted for tulips instead even though its certainly not the season for these right now. I’m also sharing with you a few tips and tricks on how to perfect a flower bouquet in my Instastories videos this week, if you’re interested.

 

Other than that, I decorated my trusty candle holders. I didn’t really know how I wanted to decorate them at first so tried a couple of different versions and kept the ones I loved the most. Sometimes its super fulfilling to just create and not have any particular idea in mind, and just see what you end up. Of course, there are fails – and I did have some, but overall I was super happy with how they turned out. And once again, I used such simple things: paper, ribbon and glitter pens – that’s itttt.

Now, to be honest, these cubes were not part of the plan. At first, I really wanted to try these Valentine’s Day trees – here’s a picture of them. But to be completely honest, I just could not get myself to start cutting out all these hearts by hand (I know I should’ve bought these packs of pre cut hearts, but I didn’t really think of it). So when the time came to decorate, I realised there was missing something on the right hand side of the mantel, where the trees were supposed to go. So last minute I came up with these cubes. I remember making these in primary school as a child and certainly had not made any since so I was pretty proud with how they turned out. haha. I’m also sharing this DIY on Instagram this week. So stay tuned.

 

But because I wanted to go over the top, I thought the mantel was not complete without a few decor items on each side of the fireplace. On the left, I created this bouquet of branches (literally just branches I picked up somewhere, which I spray painted black and added some glitter) and stuck on these hearts of different size and colour. This was probably the easiest out of all the DIYs and what a statement it makes! I love this look. And just to counterbalance the fireplace, on the other side I added a large lantern.

Now of course Valentine’s Day would not be complete without a pretty tablescape. So I set up camp on the table we have sitting right next to the fireplace. Plus, it’s the perfect size for 2 people!

I did similar tones as last year’s Valentine’s Day tablescape – deep red and brown. For tableware, I didn’t go crazy, only using white plates and these red chargers – which always glam up my table decors, that’s why I use them so often. I’m growing my collection nicely. Haha.

But the main attraction of this table decor are the delicate napkin rings I made myself. You might remember in the YouTube video I made last year, I had also made my napkin rings – but they were a very different style. You can watch it HERE if you want more craft ideas!!

You’ll see in my upcoming mini tutorial how easy these napkin rings were to make. I literally only used one thing: gold metallic string. Trust me, they’re much easier than they may appear!! I cannot wait to share! I bought the red napkins HERE and added a handful of heart shaped confetti just for the fun (and look) of it. 😉 Of course, these are not to be mixed in with the main course! Lol.

Last but not least, I added this trio of candles I also decorated myself. I loved how they came out! And oh so very easy to make.

I think that’s it in terms of all the DIYs I made this week. Now I would love to get your feedback on how much you enjoy DIY decor items vs store bought items. So please let me know!

What are you all doing for Valentine’s Day this year? Any fun plans with your loved one(s)?