Valentine’s Day Wreath and Planter DIY

“A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.”  Latin Proverb

February is a big month in our household with Valentine’s Day, our wedding anniversary and my birthday.  With winter setting in, I like to brighten the entrance for the month of February with a Valentines theme.  This year I recycled my holiday decor and transformed it with a few simple tweaks to celebrate the month of love.

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” David Bowie

I find a lot of the ready-made Valentines Day decorations are too corny or overdone so I like to create my own.  The  holiday urns had been done up in silver, flocked and red twig branches with red winter berry wreaths.  I left these in place,  removed the silver Christmas balls  in the arrangment(you can see the original urns here) and hung heart shaped ornaments throughout the branches.  Simple, restrained yet not too frilly.  I live in a household of all men, including the cat!  I really like the subtle sparkle from the glitter branches in the winter light.  Don’t have red twig dogwood?  Simply paint any branches with red paint as I did here.

For the wreath, I repurposed a red frame from this year’s Christmas planter(here) to create a wreath-within-a-wreath.   This was an old frame without glass I had painted red with acrylic paint.  Using hot glue, I decorated the edge of the frame with felted wool red hearts with rhinestone detailing and small heart-shaped “gems”.  These were recycled from a garland(JoAnn’s) I took apart(to see how I used the garland last year, click here).  You could use old jewelery or cut hearts from felt to achieve a similar look.  I hung a larger glittery red heart separated from an old store bought wreath(JoAnn’s) and hot glued its edges to the wood frame.  The frame is securely hung on a door hook.  I used a jaunty red and white polka-dotted grosgrain ribbon to make it look as if the wreath is hung by the ribbon.  It is simply for show as the frame would move too much if hung this way when the door opens and closes.  I made a bow of the same ribbon and attached it to the center heart with wire. Voilà!  My Valentine’s Day welcome!

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” Zora Neale Huston