Love Is Spoken Here

I’m sharing with you one of my Christmas gifts from my DH today combined with my Valentine’s Day Mantel.

This family photo was my favorite of all the ones taken.  My Christmas gift from the hubster included this beautiful canvas.  I really wish I could hang the canvas up on the stone centered in between the top of the shutters and the mantel.  Problem is, I don’t want to drill 2 holes into the stone for screws in order to hang it up.  I contemplated using the command strips, but I really believe the canvas would be too heavy for those.  This is my compromise even though I really think the shutters are too tall for the photo.  It’s my fault since I made the shutters.  You can see how here.

I was completely and utterly thrilled to find the yarn wrapped ‘love’ idea online.  I will have to research again where I got the idea and credit her.  It’s super easy.  All I did was take my 18″ green floral wire and bent it to create the letters.  The ‘L’ took up one wire, ‘ov’ took up another wire, and ‘e’ was about half a wire.  Take your yarn and wrap it around, it’s as simple as that…time consuming, but simple.  TIP:  If I were to go back and make another one, I would wrap the wire FIRST with the yarn and then bend into letters.  I did it the other way around and I think it might be easier to do it the opposite.  I hot glued the yarn wrapped ‘Love’ onto the shutter.  It will be easy to take off  in the future and not leave a mess.

“Is Spoken Here” are chip board letters taken out of my scrapbooking stash.  It’s funny, I’ve been using my scrapbooking supplies for more non-scrapbooking things than actual making scrapbook pages.  I used my trusty re-positionable dot glue to glue them onto the shutters.  This way I know they will come off cleanly when I am ready to take them down.

Thanks to Heidi Swapp & My Craft Channel I learned how to make the cute heart garland out of scrapbook paper, maps and book paper.  If you want to learn how to make them go here.

You see the shelf over the television?  I asked the builder to add that shelf because I like to use all available space if possible.  My intention was to display photos there.  Problem is, whenever I put photos up there, you can barely see them.  It’s kind of hard to explain, but long story short, I have had a heck of a time staging/beautifying {whatever you want to call it} that stinking shelf.  So I have seen other people take books and place them in their shelves backwards and I liked the look.  I thought, “why not try it?”  I went through the house and took all of our hard bound books, took off the covers and shoved them in.  I really like it!  I decided I like the look of the sizes mismatched throughout too.  I think the off white color of the book pages brings continuity from the off white of the shutters.  What do you think?

This is what the other side of my living room looks like now.  Isn’t it lovely? ;) I have 2 new photos from Christmas I’m adding to this wall so I needed to reconfigure the gallery.  Back to the drawing board.  This means time to take out the Power Puff Girls Christmas wrapping paper I will never use to wrap gifts with again.  I trace the frames onto the wrapping paper {turned it over to the white side, of course} and use the templates to figure out how I want it to look.  This will be a week or so long process for me to get it where it looks right.  I use paint tape to tape the templates to the wall.  It comes off easy and doesn’t hurt the paint for me to rearrange multiple times.  The items on the ground are what will be going up there.  Yesterday I covered up 26 nail holes from the previous wall gallery.  The Nester would be proud of me. ;)   Hubby will be proud to know I filled the holes in good and painted over…good as new!

Before I head out for my 3 mile run today {in the rain} I want to again THANK everyone who has generously taken time to complete my short survey.  It means a LOT to me.  The feedback is highly valuable.  It’s not too late to take the survey.  I will keep it open for about a week before tabulating the results.  It’s completely anonymous and you don’t have to answer every question if you don’t want to.  Whatever you can give is very gracious.

Linking Up:

Home Stories A2Z

 

 

 

 

 

Have a SUPER DAY,

Comments

  1. ange says:

    The canvas picture looks great! I really like how you used things from around the house to decorate the mantle, the yarn wrapped love is cute! Also liking the books facing outward like that, a fun idea. I am excited to see your gallery wall, I really need to get mine up over the shelf in the entryway again, maybe I’ll feel inspired after seeing you do yours. I also want to add, I am not preggo, just looked like i was in that apron pic. Have fun running in the rain, you go girl!
    ange recently posted..Guest Post: The Blooming Hubs Rants about "The Wood"

  2. Dusty Coyote says:

    The rock above your picture on the mantel looks like a heart?? Or is that a paper heart? I can’t tell, but it’s cute! The books look really nice!! Love the LOVE. Good for you for patching up and painting AND taking your time before you hammer again. I think it does take about a week (or longer) to get it the way you want it. I rush through it in an hour, only to rearrange it over and over for the next month or two…
    Running in the rain! You’re hardcore! Way 2 B!
    Dusty Coyote recently posted..A Valentine Garland

  3. I really like your mantel the way it is. I don’t think you should try to hang the canvas (which is beautiful, btw). It looks good between the shutters.

    You cover nail holes? Well, come on over to my house. I’ve got about a hundred or so that need covering, lol. In fact, if you look real close, you can see two of them showing on my mantel pics (above the frame). That’s why I used such a large frame for my V-day mantel…to hide the MANY nail holes behind it, hehe.
    Shasta Farrar recently posted.."From Paris With Love" Valentine Mantel

  4. Dana says:

    You’ve been busy! I really like our mantel arrangement and the shutters accent the picture nicely. Putting books in backwards is a new twist to me! It would probably drive me nuts not being able to see the titles. I have a ‘gallery wall’ too — only it’s been bare for 5 years. Still brainstorming! Ha!

    • Shan says:

      Dana, I think it’s time for me to come and help you do your Gallery wall. You’ve helped me with many things, it’s time for me to repay the favor! BTW, we’ve pretty much read all those books up there so it doesn’t matter we can’t read the titles. It’s all for the “look” of it. ;)

  5. Hi Shan,
    Thanks for stopping by and liking my In Her Shoes V-day mantel! I see you also put up a family pic – that’s great! Love the shutters and the yarn wrapped love!
    Kelly

  6. Monica says:

    Loving the family pic canvas! We so need to get new family photos taken… The one over our mantle is about 5 years old. Great job taking the time to fill your holes and paint over them! I have never done that, guess I always limit my choices by where I can cover the holes-ha. Hope you had a good run. I had to take an extra day, sore ankle-not sure why… heading out for 3-4 myself now. Then 9 on Saturday girl-eeek?!?! Why is is that I am having more injury trouble and I’m younger than you? ;)

Comments Are Welcome

*

CommentLuv badge