Red & Turquoise Valentine Mantle ~ DIY Friday

Taking down Christmas is always bitter-sweet.  By the New Year I'm ready to clear out the tree with it's needles everywhere and put away all the decorations.  But then everything seems so bare.  The kiddo's always comment how sad everything looks too.  As the 'kids side' of the mantle went down my 5 year old asked me what holiday is next.  When I told her Valentines Day she got so excited and asked how I was going to decorate the mantle.  Better get to work....

You might remember back in November when I confessed how I don't normally change out my mantle seasonally when I showed you my first ever Fall Mantle.  I also made the pledge to decorate for all kinds of seasons and holidays.  During my 12 Days of Christmas I showed off both sides of my Christmas Mantle.  One for the kiddo's in the playroom and one side for me in our great room.  Two mantles might sound fun, but it's twice the work too!  

For the kiddo's side I went with red and turquoise as my colors after I Pin'd this awesome free banner from The Dating Divas.  I think they made it to hang as a message to our hubbies, but I did something different on our side I'll show you tomorrow (hint: totally romantic!)

Free Printable HERE

I hole-punched the letters and threaded turquoise ribbon through, and instead of the bows I simply tied some little red bobble-y ribbon in between.  

Another bit of inspiration for the mantle was this fun picture of my first born who is now 11.  I showed him off in my Go Niners! post a couple of days ago too.  Here he was 6 months old and ADORABLE.  

I wanted to duplicate the Cupid's Arrow so I grabbed some kabob sticks, heart gummy candy, left over Christmas sparkly red ribbon and my 7 year old BestMomHelperEver.  A pair of scissors and a stick of glue and we whipped these up lickety split.

Oh, so cute!  To pull in more of the turquoise color I went shopping around my house and in my craft closet.  I quickly grabbed the 100 Year Anniversary Blue Mason Jars and threw a few of the Cupid Arrows into.

I pulled the blue Glass Insulator Candle from my bedroom, one of my first DIY Friday tutorials!  I found some white candles and wrapped some more of the red sparkly ribbon around it and pushed a push-pin into the back to hold the ribbon on.  You can see how to quickly (I'm talking nap time!) and easily Distress Painted Glass like I did with these two glass bottles here.

The other side felt unbalanced without a picture frame so I found this cute turquoise and chevron printable from Oopsey Daisy.  They come in all sorts of colors too!  I filled a couple old, but cleaned, baby food jars with some more heart candy.  I also wrapped a bit more of the red ribbon around one and stuffed a tea candle in the top.  Perfect fit!

 Here I simply wrapped some red chevron washi tape on a few more kabob sticks topped with a few more heart candies.  I placed a few more into each one of the distressed glass bottles for good measure.

In the center I painted a piece of scrap wood a bright red and then added a couple coats of Chalkboard Coating.  Have you seen this stuff?  It is AWESOME.  Anything and everything instantly becomes a chalk board after applying it.  Does anyone know if it comes in gallon size?

The top looked a little sad so I added a bit more of the turquoise and red bobble-y ribbon along with two more Cupid's Arrows.  Kinda silly, but kinda cute at the same time.  Sounds about right for Valentines Day don't ya think?  

And just so I can use this post as a bargaining chip against my little Cupid in the future...like maybe threatening to show this post to a Valentine girl of his...

 Be sure to stop by tomorrow and see how I decorate 'my side' as a sweet 'ode to my sweetest Valentine =)