After we took down the Christmas decorations, I’ll be honest with you, I was more than a little bummed. We’ve been blessed with a place to live that’s fully furnished, which is absolutely amazing (and can you think of a better scenario for folks coming off the mission field who need to save up to buy a place of their own?). But the Christmas decorations made being in someone else’s already-decorated place feel a lot more like our home, and warm and home-y.

But by mid-January, it really was time to take things down. So then I thought adding a little pre-emptive Valentine’s flair might warm things up again, in preparation for spring when maybe I’ll find something else to pull out and our stuff will hopefully arrive and I can at least throw a few picture frames I bought on the side of the road in Gordon’s Bay onto the wall and say “Look, that’s me and the Bear and the Eiffel Tower!”

Okay, the Bear and I.

It took me so long to get around to completing those Valentinish crafts that they’re actually perfectly timed for the actually holiday. So there ya go.

I thought I’d share a few sweet little heart ideas in case you’re feeling crafty and want to spruce up for absolutely no reason. Although Saint Valentine, legend has it, was a very brave and important believer — but that’s a story for another post.

Now I’ll warn you, if you’re going to be offended that I am about to tear up a terribly old book that is moldy and water damaged and actually needs to be thrown out just to make some paper hearts, look away. Click over to an old post or something. It’s gonna happen.

I ripped some pages out of an old book and began cutting and playing around with hearts of different shapes and sizes.

I layered some different colored hearts with the book page ones and glued them together and stuck them on yarn and took pictures which will not upload but it didn’t look that good anyway.

I then pulled the hearts off the yarn and threaded several through a single piece of thread I’d doubled over. In case you’re like me and need more instructions:

Poke holes in your hearts.

Pull yourself a long piece of thread, double it over and tie both ends of it in a knot around the needle.

Thread it through the hole in a heart from back to front, then loop it up and back through the hole a second time. Make sure to go in between the two pieces of thread the second time, or else you’ll just be undoing what you just did. (If that doesn’t make sense just try it and you’ll see what I mean.)

Leave enough space to place the next heart where you want it, and follow the same procedure.

Shampoo, rinse, repeat and voila!

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1. Le Dangly Garland

A lil sum fin sweet like this will emerge which you can hang from that naked hook on the mantle, or a doorknob. Keep out of reach of Tanks.

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I also decided to make a heart garland, just with book paper, which seems romantic and the end result could possibly be used not just at Valentines maywhobiddyhaps.

I folded over a sheet of book paper and cut around a heart I’d already traced, but left a little of the fold un-cut at the top of each of the heart’s humps. Like so.

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And then I used a long piece of thread and placed my sweet hearts gently over side by side, and with a little dab of glue, I pinched them closed and voila! Aren’t we feeling French today?

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2. Le Romantic Book Paper, Mon Chéri.

I think this’ll be cute in our bedroom later. The Bear likes it.

And oh yes I did repurpose the sweet little polka-dots of a Krispy Kreme box.

A couple of cut-out hearts glued together with a string of yarn in between…happy on a door knob or a fridge handle but keep out of reach of Tanks!

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3. La fête du Krispy Kreme

One last little crafty idea for some hometastic Valentine goodness: Grab one of those old book paper hearts you’ve already cut out. (I think newspaper would work just as nicely by the way. Feel free to soak it in some tea and let it dry to stain it if you really want a vintage feel.)

Starting at the bottom, cut following the edge of the heart about 1/8th of an inch in, just tracing along the shape of the heart inwards, gently and carefully for as long as you can go, around and around toward the centre.

You can glue it gently to a happy colored piece of craft paper and…

The result should be something like this, which will make a lovely Valentine for the Hubs next week, and I’ll be proud.

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4. L’amour du Papier (Love of Paper)

I just thought those were a few fun ideas worth sharing. Let me know if you try one! Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day?

xCC