Valentine's Gallery Art Wall (and free printable)

Until recently, I have not been one for "themed" Valentine's decor. In fact, I normally don't decorate for Valentine's Day and opt for cranberry colored winter berry decor to last from Christmas until Spring. This year, though, I have been loving book page crafts (it all started with my book page pumpkins) and decided I wanted book pages and red hearts to be my 2013 Valentine's Day theme. Considering our level of book nerdiness and the size of our library, books are especially appropriate for us.

I have a narrow wall in our downstairs half bath that was more than ready for an art update. I picked up 5 frames from the dollar store (2 8x10 size and 3 5x7 size) and got to work.

Supplies

• Frames (2 of 8x10 size and 3 of 5x7 size)
• Old book
• Glue
• Red construction paper
• Printer
• Cardstock
• Poster board ($0.50 from Dollar Tree for a huge piece)
• Permanent marker
• Embroidery thread
• Paint and paint brushes

Painted Heart

To make this one, I glued down several pages to the back of the default image paper than came in the frame.  Once it was dry, I painted a heart with watered down red acrylic paint and added some black accents. I like that the heart is see through and you can still see the words on the back side.

Cut Out "Specimen" Hearts

For this one, I printed out the lyrics of the song that was sung at our wedding (A Page is Turned by Bebo Norman - totally ties into the book nerd theme!) onto a piece of cardstock and used it for a mat. I cut some extra hearts out of the lyrics and glued them down onto a piece of red construction paper with some colored hearts (I decided on black for contrast). 

Song Lyrics Tree

This was inspired by this pin. Sadly, there is no original source - it just points to a tumblr blog. Let this be a lesson - if you're a blogger, watermark your stuff! That way if you picture becomes unmatched from the source people can find you. But I digress. The tree is another piece of cardstock with the Page is Turned lyrics on it. Then I tied red hearts onto the branch with embroidery floss. Mine is admittedly not nearly as pretty as the original but I still like it.

Pop Out Heart Art

This was inspired by this 3D Butterfly Art. I turned a book page sideways and drew hearts on the back. I cut around most of the edge, leaving a core in the middle to keep the heart attaached when folding up the sides. I slipped a piece of red construction paper in behind it and put it in the frame in front of the glass.

Printed Branch with Hearts

To make this one, I cut a piece of book paper to 5x7 and then told my printer to print the graphic as if it were a 5x7 photo. I should have reduced the amount of ink it used because it did take a little while to dry but I really like how it looks. 

If you like it, I'm sharing my printable graphic with you guys. You can try printing it on a book page like I did or onto regular cardstock for use in your valentine crafting. Click here to download the full size heart branch graphic for printing.

Thanks for stopping by!