My Version of Valentine's Crafting...

The people closest to me know that I love to switch up our home decor quite often. I use different seasons and holidays as my excuse to swap patterns, colors and textures in and out of our space all year long. But shockingly, that doesn't mean I go all out for every holiday on the calendar. One of the holidays I've never decorated for is Valentine's Day. And while I'm still not going all out...thanks to a super sweet invite to a blog hop full of talented ladies, I've decided to try my hand at a little Valentine's Day crafting! :)

For my project, I wanted to make some art to add a little "love" to our mantel. I went shopping in my ~~crap~~ craft room {one of the few times I've been thankful for my hoarded stash taking up an entire room} and gathered my supplies: empty frames, cardstock, a heart-shaped lever punch, glue, ruler and x-acto knife.

I know my color scheme doesn't scream Valentine's Day, but it fits perfectly in our home and I wanted to prove to myself I could make something Valentine's-ish without using pink and red.

I started by cutting out my backgrounds. I used the filler paper that came with the frames as templates, and cut clean lines with my ruler and x-acto knife. {Please ignore my much-in-need-of-a-manicure-nails.}

Then I started punching holes...errrr, hearts.

I lined things up as I punched along so I could get an idea of how many I'd need.

When I had enough hearts cut out, I laid everything into place. Then I got out the trusty Elmer's to glue each heart down, one by one.

The key is to not put a ton of glue on the back...just a dab. And since you have the grid already laid out, you can slide the hearts around until the placement looks right. I didn't measure anything for this project. In fact, that was my requirement. I didn't want to measure anything! ;)

After the first grid was done, I decided to use my next frame to write out an X and O. Again, I just eyeballed the placement, and glued after I laid everything in place.

Once the glue dried, it was time to pop them into their frames, and voilà! Instant Valentine's Day art for our mantel! :)

Now, before you go, please make sure you enter to win a $140 Target gift card and check out the 13 other amazing Valentine's Day projects!! You won't want to miss any of them! :)