Ahhhh…February, the month of love. The month when all the Fry’s stores have huge “Valentines Express” tents set up outside for the hapless husband or boyfriend who forgets that it is Valentines month until the moment is upon him. When Costco jacks up their rose prices ten bucks and people say nothing. So, so romantic. I promise, I’m not a cynic. I’ve been happily married for twelve (eeek!) years and my husband still buys me flowers. And I don’t even care if they’re from the Fry’s Valentine’s Express tent! But I must admit, sometimes I long for the days when men said things like,
“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I love and admire you”
Recognize that? If you do, we might just be sisters. Anyway, beautiful words and love stories like those from Mr. Darcy’s first (kind of pathetic) expression of love to Elizabeth inspired this Valentines project. There’s two parts, so check back in tomorrow for part 2!
For part 1, I wanted to make a banner or mobile to hang in front of our fireplace for Valentines day. I’m not a big holiday decorator, but I’ve tried to at least decorate the mantle a couple times a year. I had planned to use our yarn wrapped hearts but since the Little Bee desperately wanted to give them to her friends and teachers, I had to find an alternative. As you’ll see this project ended up somewhere else too, but it was still fun to do!
You’ll need
a book
scissors
mod podge
fine glitter
needle and invisible thread
heart punch (or the patience to cut out all those hearts yourself)
Sorry for the lack of photos for this project. It was one of those work-on-it-whenever-you-have-15-minutes projects, so the camera didn’t make it out every time. I’ll do my best to describe.
First I ripped out the pages that I wanted to use from Pride and Prejudice. I used, of course, Mr. Darcy’s first proposal, but I had to throw in a page or two from Mr. Collins proposal as well. And the part where Lizzy tells off Lady Catherine. That’s a great part. I wanted to glitter them, so i brushed one side of each page with a very light coat of mod podge and gave it a light coat of fine pink glitter. I let it dry overnight, then cut the pages into the right size and used the heart punch. Once they were cut, I used the needle and invisible thread to connect them at the corners. I finished this project at a friends house, and hung it up on her massive stone fireplace to see how it looked. It looked way better than anywhere I could put it at my house, so I decided to leave it. Her toddler pronounced it “coooo!” which I’m guessing is somewhere between cute and cool, and I just can’t resist a little snaggle tooth blue eye baby either. So there you have it – love notes. Beautiful words dripping from the fireplace!