Valentine Mantel {and thrifty treasure DIY}

Yes! I’m decorating the mantel for Valentine’s Day after all but it’s still not too late…

“Owl You Need is Love & Chocolate”

Valentine mantel

Back when I glanced at the thrift store junk stash, I saw two of these calendar displays. I can’t pass them up – wood, great DIY material. Ya know?

Bri had scored these fun wood cut out shapes. I snagged the ‘badge/crest’ looking one thinking it was a great owl-shape. {pardon the lighting in the dining room turned work station for the tutorial}

And a Valentine DIY craft and decorating idea was born.

Materials:

FrogTape
wooden calendar frame
badge-shaped wooden cut out
wooden heart shape
craft paints
wood glue

I started with tracing my camera lens cap for the owl’s eyes.

I drew a pencil line vertically down the center. Using 2 ” pieces of FrogTape, I created a chevron pattern on the owl’s body working from the center out…

Once the tape was burnished (rub the edges of the tape with a credit card to activate the FrogTape’s paintblock), I painted my pattern. Then immediate removed the FrogTape…

Once that was dry, I continued painting my badge to look like an owl.

I used FrogTape to protect the frame and painted the background white and let it dry…

My wooden heart was painted brown {FolkArt’s burnt umber}. Once everything was dry, I laid out the placement of the owl, heart and used adhesive stencils for my lettering…

The owl and heart were attached using Gorilla wood glue. I let the glue dry for about an hour.

Then gathered some decorative accents…

painted candlesticks Easter, decor, do it yourself, faux chocolate bar sign, wood sign, centerpiece

…and styled my mantel using thrift store candle sticks, an ampersand and a fun faux chocolate bar DIY from last Easter. Of course I was still in my pajamas and I asked Mr. DIY to pick me up a bouquet of pink flowers for my photo shoot and boy, did he ever…they.are.VERY.pink…. They’re perfect. My vase is embellished with clay tags and ribbon.

Did I mention that just regular days are like Valentine’s Day around here? Not only did he pick out pretty flowers for my Valentine’s Day mantel decorating, but he came home with these…