Country Chic Valentine decor

Country Chic Valentine decor – My littlest child thinks we need to have decorations for every holiday and I tend to agree.  I love to create and decorate and make our house a home.  She is old enough to help and definitely has a great sense of what she likes.  She posses a huge amount of creativity for a preschooler and it makes my heart swell with joy.  The option to color the hearts red or pink was given to her.  She declined because hearts come in all sorts of colors and sizes and she wanted to make the hearts pretty with all the “stuffs”.   This artistic mom could not have been happier with that statement.  We made these with a the box of Christmas craft supplies that were never quite incorporated back into my craft stash and were sitting in the corner of my room patiently waiting to be sorted and put away.  The bits of twine, ribbons, buttons and fabric were all left over from a craft night before Christmas.  Even the straws were left over from another festive occasion.  I keep a large box of Poly-Fil on hand so we did not have to purchase anything to make this decorative trio.   Making the decorations from leftovers made me happy and we created something that can be displayed for many more Valentine’s Days to come.

Supplies for Country Chic Valentine decor:

• Duck Cloth or Canvas
• Pencil
• Fabric scissors and utility scissors
• Sewing machine and coordinating thread
• Embroidery floss and embroidery needle
• Iron on letters and Iron
• Paper Straws
• Bamboo Skewers
• Fairfield Processing – Polyfil fiberfill
• Adtech Pro100 Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Paint brush
• Americana Acrylic Paint – White,
• DecoArt Metallic Luster –  Gold Rush, Iced Espresso
• DecoArt Dazzling Metallics – Gold
• Washi Tape
• Misc. buttons and trim in neutral colors
• shredded brown paper
• rocks 

Country Chic Valentine decor Instructions:

1. Gingerly paint the terra cotta pots with a coat of white paint.  If you go too heavy on the paint you can remove excess paint while it is damp using a cloth or use sandpaper after the paint is dry.  Allow the paint to dry then wrap the washi tape around the lip of the pot.  Use your finger or a cloth wrapped around your finger to apply the metallic paint around the edges and along the rim of the terra cotta pot.  Start with the Gold Rush then layer on the Iced Espresso.
2. Trim jute and ribbons to size and hot glue on bits of old doilies, rickrack or other natural colored embellishments.
3. Draw one large and two small hearts on canvas and then cut out the shapes with scissors.  Water down Gold paint and drizzle over fabric randomly.  Let the paint dry.  Add hand embroidery details around the hearts.  Place right sides together and sew the pieces together leaving a small opening at the bottom for the Poly-Fil and to place over the straws.  Iron on the sentiments of your choice to cotton ribbon remnants.  Hand sew or hot glue on the decorative embellishments.
4. In the bottom of the terra cotta pots, place a few small rocks and generously add hot glue into the bottom to adhere the rocks..  While the glue is still warm insert a bamboo skewer into the glue.  Then place the straw over the skewer and hold in place until the glue cools.  The skewers provide stability.  Add the Poly-Fil to the hearts.  Add a small dot of glue onto the top of the straws and place the hearts on the straws through the opening at the bottom.  Let the glue cool and close off the opening with embroidery floss applied in a decorative fashion.   Add in brown shredded paper.  I run leftover cardstock through the home office paper shredder.

Tip: Hot glue a few rocks in the bottom of terra cotta pots to weight them down and to keep objects centered.  Use an old credit cards to smooth the washi tape ripples.