Guest Mantel- My Sister's Suitcase!

So glad you stopped by because today's Mantel Monday is gonna be a good one! The lovely Holly from My Sister's Suitcase is here showing off her LOVELY Valentine Mantel. It's the perfect mantel to carry us into Valentine's Day!

Have you met the Sisters from My Sister's Suitcase?? If not, you definitely need to hop over there and start following their blog! Tell them I sent you. Nat and Holly are crafty sisters who share a passion for all things creative...and, they're living 462 miles apart. They call their relationship a LDCR (long distance crafting relationship). Ha! See? They're funny too.

You can find them on facebook. You can catch them on feedburner. You can even stalk their homepage if you want. They won't mind. But, however you do it, you'll want to get connected and stay connected...so you can follow their crafty goodness!




Okay...here's Holly:

The best part about making over my mantel for each holiday is having a space that adds a pop of color to the room, and just makes me smile :) I really {LOVE} the way my Valentine's Day Mantel turned out and I hope you do too.

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There were three simple projects I completed for this mantelscape.... {well, one of them turned out not to be so simple after all!} So we'll start with that one....

After the yarn wreaths I've made recently, I thought, how fun would it be to have some yarn letters to spell out LOVE for Valentine's Day? Hahaha! Fun is not the word that came to mind as I was tirelessly wrapping, taping, gluing and burning my fingers with hot glue :) But in the end, it was worth it. I really adore how they turned out. Go check out my full tutorial {if any of you decide to take this on!} I created an ombre effect using 3 different shades of pink yarn. I decided to stack the letters, creating more height for my space.

I chose a pink color scheme because it pops nicely against my turquoise mantel, and also because I wanted to borrow this mirror from baby girl's bedroom. I got the mirror at our local Habitat for Humanity store for $10, painted it with Krylon Watermelon and added a glaze. I love it when I can "shop" rooms in my house to accesorize :)

So back to the pink... when I was shopping for my yarn at JoAnn's I came across this amazing stuff:

It is yarn with the cutest little fluffy pom poms on it, with an ombre effect! The colors were exactly the shades of pink I wanted and it pretty much inspired everything else. I used the Pomp-a-doodle yarn as an accent to hang across the edge of my mantel. I think it adds the perfect touch to tie all the colors together.

The next project was my Queen of Hearts Canvas. You can see how I transformed a simple 8x10 canvas with a photocopy and CitraSolv, here. It was a super easy project that seriously took me less than 15 minutes! Which was really nice after all the time I'd spent on my yarn letters :)

Another easy accessory was this book bundle... inspired by my friend Brooke at Inside Out Design. Check out her post here! There may be some people out there who are cringing at the thought of ripping a cover off a book... but I really don't have a problem with it :) These paperback books were sitting in boxes down in my basement collecting dust. I chose books that were leisure reads, that we'll probably never read again. And if we ever decide we do want to, they are still intact and perfectly readable :)

Once I started placing everything on the mantel, I realized that I needed something to fill in the space at the top... I wanted to create a bunting to hang from my handy-dandy hooks but didn't want to use material or anything else that would require more hot glue :)

My final project was born, a valentine envelope bunting! I gathered up a variety of envelopes from my cupboards and craft bins, grabbed some white cotton twine, and put it all together. I used double stick tape to secure the flaps down and attach them to the twine.  Then I added a few paint chip hearts (I'll be posting my paint chip project later this week) and mini bulldog clips to add some vintage goodness :)

Here's one more look at the final result:

The only items I bought to create this mantelscape were the cardboard letters and yarn. Everything else was made/accessorized with items I had on hand. I hope this inspires you to look around and find the beautiful things in your home that you can use to decorate for any season!

Have a fabulous Monday :)
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Thanks SO much for sharing your beautiful Valentine's Day mantel, Holly!! I'm so in love with everything about this mantel.

And, of course I have a few more Valentine mantels to show you! The following mantels were linked up at our ongoing mantel link party!! Did you know about our ongoing mantel link party?? I haven't reminded you about it in awhile, but it's still there and still hoppin' with inspiration! Go check it out. And, then go link up ANY mantel you've blogged about! The party will stay open, so link up past holidays, current holidays and your everyday mantels.

Cameron Homemade

Austin & Jean

Wilbur Road

A Wee Meenit

Our Family Journey

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There were also some great mantels linked up last Thursday at Thursdays are YOUR Days so go hit those up as well!

And, if you're in need of MORE Valentine mantel ideas? Well...you'd better just head on over to Pinterest.

Because, I need a nap.

Happy Mantel Monday, y'all!

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