Easy Valentine Decorations

Sound familiar? It's almost Valentine's Day. Your house is looking pretty bland, and the kids are begging you to "please, please, please" decorate. You're busy. You're tired. You're creativity and energy level are at zero. If you have a fabric or scrapbook paper stash, an old frame, and a few minutes, I've got you covered! Let's make some easy Valentine decorations!

Remember the playing card Valentine banner I shared a couple of weeks ago? When it came time to photograph it for my guest post.  My mantel was looking pretty sad.  I needed a large anchor piece for the background, but I had nada.  Nothing.

Then I saw this adorable Valentine Heart Specimen Art on Shaken Together Life. I know. It's gorgeous, isn't it?

I found an ancient jungle green frame with no glass (I'm sure the color was cool some time in the 80s), and gave it a quick coat of red paint left over from my family computer station.  (And I do mean quick. After the kids went to bed, I used a foam brush to slather on a coat of paint every half an hour or so in between loads of laundry. Somehow I managed to smother the perfectionist side of my personality for a little while!)

I originally planned to use hearts, but when I laid the fabric scraps inside the frame to see which looked best, I decided I liked the simple look, and it fit my time table (no time) just perfectly. For once, I put away all of my fancy ideas and simplified. It felt good!

So, enough about the story behind the project.  Let's get crafting!

Quick and Easy Valentine Decorations

Here's what you need:

• Large frame (no glass necessary)
• 9 fabric or scrapbook paper scraps (the size depends on the size of your frame)
• White foam core large enough to fill  your frame (I cut up an old board from a school project)

Directions:

1. Cut foam core to fit inside your frame.  (It should be slightly larger than the opening in the front of the frame.) Gently press the foam core into the frame from the back.
2. Trim fabric or paper scraps to desired size. They don't need to be perfectly even. (If you have a hard time eyeballing the size, use this method: Measure the inside of the top of your frame. Subtract two to three inches to give yourself a white border around the edge of your scraps. Now divide your answer by three. That gives you a good estimate for the width of your scraps. Do the same for the inside of the height of your frame to get an estimate for the height of your scraps. If the inside of my frame were 18 x 24, my pieces would be 5 x 7 inches.)
3. Lay out your scraps on the foam core and adjust them until you are happy with the layout.
4. If you are using paper, use double-sided tape or tape runner to attach the paper to the foam core. If you are using fabric, you need something stronger. I used glue dots. They are strong enough to hold the fabric, but since they aren't wet like regular glue, they won't ruin the foam core.

That's it! You've created a large statement piece in just a few minutes, and you can pop the foam core out and use the frame again for another season. I'm all for reusing large decor items. You'll probably see this frame again at Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by today!

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