Valentine's Day Series - Mantel Decor

Hi all Happy Monday!!!  I hope you have all had a great weekend.  I have to admit I didn't really watch the Super Bowl, I crafted instead.  My hubby was out of town, so I didn't feel the need to watch and I actually finished my Valentine's Day mantel with enough time to enjoy it.  Starting to feel the love already.  

So here it is.  I am really loving it, although I may add some white candles if I get the chance.  The word art projects I did last year.  You can see the post here.  I decided I would use them again instead of constantly making new stuff.  The big new project this year was the flowered heart and I am going to give you a tutorial on how to make it today.  It takes a little time but is super easy and really makes a statement.  So here we go .... Flowered Heart Wreath Tutorial Supplies Needed:

• Foam core board from the Dollar Store
• Pack of 150 white coffee filters from the Dollar Store (I used all of them)
• Heidi Swapp Color Shine
• I used 3 bottles in 3 different colors:  Primrose, Sweet Cherry, and Peach
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Tape

Instructions:

First you need to make the flowers.  I made them out of coffee filters and Heidi Swapp color shine.  For a wreath this big, almost the length of the foam board, I had to use 3 bottles.   Here is the pictorial of how to make them:

1.  First you need to dye the coffee filters, unless you want all white flowers which is fine.  I used the color shine spray because when you spray the filters and they dry really fast.  A cheaper way to do it would be use food coloring to dye them.  Most people dip dye their filters and set them to dry, I find that this takes too long so I spray them.  

2.  The next thing is to gather your filters, scissors, and stapler.

3.  Stack 6 filters up, this is how many each flower takes.  You could use more or less depending on how big you want your flower.

4.  Fold your filters in half making a semi-circle.

5.  Fold you filters in half again making a sort of triangle.

6.  Cut a design across the rounded edge of the filters.  I used a three scallop design but you could use whatever you would like.  This will determine the shape of your flowers.

7.  Unfold the filters and keeping them stacked, pinch the center to gather them.  Then staple at the gather.  This does not need to be a perfect gather and is not a science.  All my flowers where gathered in different ways and they all came out beautiful.

8.  Pull the first coffee filter layer up towards the staple and scrunch to make the center of the flower.

9.  After the center is pulled, pull the next four layers up towards the center and play with the layers until you get the look you want.  The final layer I keep down and twist to form a stem.  I use this stem to adhere to the foam board.

There you have it, repeat these steps until you get them number of flowers you need.  I needed 24, but it will vary depending on how dense you want your wreath and how big you cut your heart.  The next step is to assemble the wreath.  Here is the pictorial for the assembly:

1.  First you need to draw your heart, or any shape, onto your foam board.  I chose an asymmetrical heart shape.  You need an inner heart and and outer heart.

2.  Cut out your outer heart first.  I used an exacto knife for this, the scissors kept getting caught.  Then cut out your inner heart and you should be left with something similar to the picture above.

3.  Next cut a whole where you want to place the first flower.  With a heart shape I suggest starting at the top point and working out.  The way I did this was to place the first flower and then work outward, one flower on each side at a time.  I highly recommend cutting your wholes with the flowers on because this will allow you to see how densely placed you want your flowers.  

4.  The flowers go into the wholes with the stems I told you about in step 9 of the flower instruction above.  Once you have them all placed, the back of your heart should look as follows.

5.  The final step you want to do is to tape the stems to the back of the board.  This is just to help them stay in place.  I used duct tape because that is all I had in the house.  I would actually recommend using clear packers tape for this because it was really hard to get the duct tape to stick.  

So that is that, I hope I have inspired you to create your own holiday decor.  It really is fun to have the house look different for every holiday.  The kids love it.  I hope to have some more Valentine's Day posts up this week.  In the meantime enjoy your day and don't forget to craft.