Vintage Valentine Mantel: Quick Decor

I’m actually not someone who likes to decorate for every holiday – does that make me a bad blogger? I like to make seasonal updates – adding leaves in the fall, evergreens in the winter, flowers in the spring, and seashells in the summer – more than any specific holiday decoration. The notable exception being Christmas, but I’m not alone in that, am I?

However, with the popularity of Pinterest (you can always follow me there, too!), blogs, and free printables, I find myself adding a few holiday-specific things here-and-there because it’s just so easy. I printed off a “Give Thanks” printable last fall, slapped it in a frame and had my first Thanksgiving decoration, ever (other than leaves…).

If it’s easy, quick, and cheap/free – and not too cutesy – then I’ll go for it. A perfect example is our mantel. I left the green shutters up from our Christmas mantel for the month of January and added a few vintage items to keep the green-and-white theme I used for the holidays. It’s a quiet color scheme that I find always enjoy after December.

And then during the last couple weeks as I added a couple of super quick crafts, I realized I had created a vintage valentine mantel – without even planning it. That’s usually how I roll, though – it’s too much pressure to come up with something all at once. I usually take a week or so, adding things here and there. Or ignoring it – whatever I happen to feel at the time. Perfection is not my thing, as you know.

Here’s how to easily update a mantel for Valentines:

When I saw these sweet printables on Pinterest this week (using my phone when our power was out – that’s a 21st century thought, isn’t it?) I knew this was just the quick-and-dirty kinda project I like that would give our vintage mantel a Valentine vibe (sorry, I’ll stop with the words starting with ‘v’ now, promise!).

Here’s how I made the vintagey XO Banner:

1. Go to I Heart Naptime to print the chalkboard-like XO banner.
2. Cut out printed banner.
3. Moisten a tea bag with a couple tablespoons of water in a small cup and microwave for 20-30 seconds.
4. Use a small paintbrush to brush the XO banner pieces with the tea stain, lightly brushing over all the surfaces. They’ll curl, so wipe them with a rag, turn them over and place something on them to weight them down (like a couple magazines). Leave to dry.
5. When dry, glue them to music sheet pages with a glue stick. Use scissors to cut out around the black banners, leaving as much of the music sheet showing as you’d like. I left about 1/4-inch.
6. Use a hole punch to make holes just inside each of the black banners at the tops & thread with jute twine.

I just taped the jute ends to the top of my shutter, but you could use thumb tacks to any surface as well.

I made this adorable ‘key to my heart’ art a couple weeks ago after seeing this post by Coastal Colors on Pinterest. I used a thrift store frame that I painted black and dry-brushed with metalic silver craft paint to give it a zinc look and cut my heart out of vintage sheet music. I already had the burlap and key (it’s a plastic one I found at Michaels a year ago), so this 10 minute project cost me nothing. You know how I love that.

Got 10 minutes? Add a couple of vintage-looking crafts to a wall, mantel, or sideboard to help celebrate the holiday – and have a fabulous Valentine’s Day!