While my husband was enjoying the Super Bowl {and ridiculously good halftime show} in Dallas, my daughter and I got busy making the house look a little bit more like Valentine’s Day! I am not one to go big with V. day décor, but I love a few sweet things to make us all smile. I also host an annual tea party for my daughter and her little friends in February . . . so the decorations do double duty. This year, she wanted lots and lots of hearts! We managed to give the mantel ‘a little heart’ for under five dollars {in fact, I think we spent three!}. 
I loving shopping the house to create an almost free mantel. Here I wrapped some extra scrapbook paper around the candles to give them some color. 
My girl, Cassie, from Hi Sugarplum inspired our heart garland. We scoured the house for leftover scrapbook paper and used some pink satin ribbon we had on hand. Great project for little hands. I cut the hearts and hole punched them . . . and my daughter strung the ribbon through to make the garland. 
If you need a step by step, Cassie does a great job showing you how to put it all together! 
For the framed hearts, we used a piece of scrapbook paper {target sold a pack of heart paper in the dollar section}. They also sold a pack of four hearts for a dollar. We simply used double sided tape to attach them to the glass. And yes, I have an addiction to the dollar section. Anyone willing to be my sponsor??} 
Inspired by a project my mom used to do with me, I drew a heart on a piece of white paper and my daughter got busy gluing each conversation heart. Great activity, mommies! It took her quite a while! Just sayin’. 
We gave our chalk board vase a little love as well with a sweet message: 
So there you have it. A shout out to Valentine’s Day and our upcoming Sweetheart Tea Party! The rest of the tea party décor is on the down low. Must keep some things a surprise for those of you joining us for the Mommy-Daughter tea! 
On another note, hope you all had a great weekend. And to those of you from Texas, my husband actually said he could picture moving there. Ya’ll must be really really nice!!! Does he know Fergie doesn’t actually live there??? What about you? Have you gotten crafty for Valentine’s Day? I will be back tomorrow with a great round-up of Valentine ideas! If you haven’t yet busted out the decorations, maybe these will inspire you! Sharing this with: Polly Want a Crafter Keeping it Simple The Shabby Nest Today’s Creative Blog The Girl Creative
As soon as Lilly is old enough to appreciate this sort of stuff, maybe next year, i want to do this too! Looks great.
Yes, you must move here! 😉
That is a very sweet mantel, and truly not over the top Valentine'sy! (I'm addicted to the dollar bins too)
I absoutley love it! I've seen so many ideas on blogs, but haven't fell in love… yet! Well, I just did! Amazing and so simple. Thanks for the great ideas!
http://morrest1101.blogspot.com/
Looks great! I especially like the framed heart made of conversation hearts. Very meta.
I'm not a big one for decorating, especially for "lesser" holidays, but my boys sure enjoy it. Will probably do more this year, at their request.
Adorable and even better at that price tag.
LOVE the target $1 section 😀
Your mantel is so cute!
We haven't done any decorating, but we've been working hard on making valentines this year. I had so many paint swatches lying around that I got an idea… for paint swatch Valentines! LOL
http://ourslohouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/diy-paint-swatch-valentines.html
I love how simple and sweet it is! The paper around the candles are so smart. Especially adore the chalk board vase and it's saying. Maybe I'll use that one somewhere in my house (:
CUTE! I've decorated for Valentine's Day for the first time ever…and I'm loving it!
I love the paper around the candles. It looks great!
So sweet Courtney. That pretty garland would make me smile too.
-Rene
that is so sweet! love the garland!
Awww…and yes, I'm feeling very inspired!!! (c: I already told cassie how much I love that darling garland, but yours is too cute! Actually, my favorite thing is the candles wrapped in scrapbook paper, brilliant! I can't wait to see the mother-daughter tea, that is such an adorable tradition!
It looks fabulous! I just finished my first chalkboard last night and I can't wait to decorate for valentines this week!
I love this! Especially the sweet candy heart heart!
This looks great – my conversation heart project goes up tomorrow – LOL 🙂 The mother-daughter tea sounds wonderful. Of course Texans are lovely – I will still claim it even though this year marks the year I have officially lived the same amount of time elsewhere as I did Texas… but I will always be a Texan (born and bred) oh and when you find the $1 spot sponsor, let me know… 🙂 there are a few things also in my mantel post today! LOL
Very sweet mantel! I'm going to Austin the end of this week and I'm SOOO excited! 🙂
Lovely Courtney! The candy hearts are adorable and a bonus about the kid-friendly activity! There's a blog "The Stories of A to Z" that has a V-Day mantle link party too if you want to join- I think your mantle would be a favorite.
So sweeet, this makes me want to actually decorate for v-day this year!
These are great. Small things that make such a big impact. Love.
I love the mantel! Especially the candy heart!! Too cute. Don't do much for V-day here as the girls are older (they do still get treats from mom and dad however), but the younger one has had a tournament in Birmingham ever since we can remember for V-Day weekend!!
Your mantle is so sweet! Love that you did it all on a budget too. 🙂
This is so cute! I love the fact that you did not spend a lot of money but you created a fun memory. Great job!
Love the mantle! So cute!
I am curious about where you got that cool branch that is in the chalkboard vase. Did you make it? If not, where did you buy it? I have been looking for something similar!
Thank you for all of the sweet comments. You've made my day. Ashley, the branches are from World Market. I think there are two or three of them in there. Hope that helps!
That candy heart looks pretty darn good! If I sat my son down to do that it would end up looking like a square, at best LOL
Your mantle is so pretty!! I love that is cost you $3 to…make it even prettier : )
Paula
The chalkboard vase is my fav! Where did you snag such a thing?
LOve it!! perfect in every way!
Looks great, Court!!! Thanks for the shout-out…and yay for lengthy kid projects!!!
Your tea is going to be off the hook, yo…seriously, I'm sure it will be amazing. Can't wait to see it all!
And of course Texans rock!!
You guys should totally move to Texas! 🙂
Your mantel is so sweet!
That is such a sweet and pretty mantle. I love that you've carried on the tradition of the conversation heart artwork with your kids. I bet your kids had fun yesterday putting this together with you. I love it, Courtney!
What a lovely sweet mantle. Happy Vday!
So simple and sweet (literally!). 🙂
We are hosting a Valentine linkup party over at Sassy Sites! I would love to have you stop by and link up this Valentine post (and ANY other valentine post you have!) xoxo!!
<3 Marni
Love this whole setup! I would love for you to link up to my Ten Buck Tuesday link parties!
http://www.youngnester.blogspot.com
Simple and darling!! Thanks for the great ideas!
Maureen
love it, sweet simple, classy, words to live by. great job on all your post, love it all.!!!;>
Courtney, where did you get your candlesticks? Love ALL of your mantels, by the way!
Hi Mego! Those are from Home Goods a while back. But they generally carry those on a regular basis. I know Z Gallerie has them as well.