A combination of goodies sent by Martha Stewart Crafts and those we had on hand or purchased at Michael's Craft Store.

A combination of goodies sent by Martha Stewart Crafts and those we had on hand or purchased at Michael’s Craft Store.

Martha Stewart Crafts sent us a few goodies to see what we could do with them. Since we’ve been working on DIY decor that can be recycled from season to season, we knew immediately that we wanted to use faux branches with lights as well as the tree branches that we’d brought in for fall that we “iced” for winter that we’ve used in every decoration since (I’ll be posting their transformation soon).

We reused the gold glitter base we added at Christmas by adding rocks in the bottom to weight it. We didn’t have enough to fill the tin so we finished holding the branches in place with some large pine cones we’d used to decorate during Christmas with. They added stability without additional weight which was perfect. Then we added the branches and the tiny lighted faux branches which we put brand new batteries in (they last for weeks on these LED lights! We added pink rose buds leftover from our coffee and dessert party earlier in the day to hide the rocks. Now we were ready to start decorating!

Faux an real branches ready for decorating

Faux an real branches ready for decorating

Martha Stewart Crafts

We took the Valentine’s Day Cards that we received and we used decorative scissors to give them a more interesting edge. Then we mounted some of them to their matching envelop, with the To/From on the backside of the Valentine. We then used the stickers provided to play Valentine’s Day Tic-Tac-Toe on them and we attached the final product to our iced branches with decorative miniature clothespins I picked up from Michael’s Craft Store.

Valentine mounted on envelope and then pinned on the tree with a decorative clothes pin

Valentine mounted on envelope and then pinned on the tree with a decorative clothes pin

Once we had all of our Valentine’s in place, we filled in with stickers and other decorative items. I’d picked up some 3D hearts with a jewel in the middle. I stuck two together and then used Martha Stewart’s Kitchen Twine to tie them to the tree. I loved the sparkle that they added and they were under $2.00 with the 40% discount. I’ll also be able to use the kitchen string for so many other products – it came with 6 small spools of 3 different colors. LOVE!

Mom showing off one of the 3D jeweled hearts that became inexpensive DIY ornaments

Mom showing off one of the 3D jeweled hearts that became inexpensive DIY ornaments

We continued to fill the tree with the bits and pieced of Valentine’s Day goodies including the stickers provided by Martha Stewart Crafts. We loved that they were so creative and the perfect size. We added them throughout the tree to accent the other decorations. There were two sets of sticker – some that were the traditional type that were made of durable plastic and they appeared translucent on the tree – we loved the look.

One of the Martha Stewart stickers used to decorate our tree

One of the Martha Stewart stickers used to decorate our tree

The others Martha Stewart Crafts stickers were 3D, paper stickers that were very detailed and colorful. We loved the variety and we used the extras on Valentine suckers for my mother’s senior friends. They took plain lollipops and made them special.

3d Paper Stickers by Martha Stewart Crafts

3d Paper Stickers by Martha Stewart Crafts

We finished up our tree by turning our Martha Stewart Crafts wooden rubber stamps into part of the decor by placing them on a gold charger underneath the gold glitter pail the tree was placed into. We surrounded it with pink silk rose petals, a pink vase,  my napkin rings which I love that add sparkle and shine, then we placed the whole lot atop a pink and white gingham napkin and our Valentine’s Decoration was complete! I swear it’s MUCH prettier than this picture shows and it was easy to create and fun!

DIY Valentine's Day Tree

DIY Valentine’s Day Tree

 


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