Valentine's Day centerpiece

I'm rocking the red, white, and blue today in hopes it will help Team USA! Did you watch the Olympics last night? How heartbreaking that none of our snowboarders placed in halfpipe. Seems like there have been several great American athletes that were supposed to place only to completely miss the medal stand. Guess that's the way it goes. Here's hoping for better luck today!

Okay, onto this Valentine's Day bouquet...

I had received the filler that you see above for free from a flea market. They were getting ready to pack up and said "just take it"! You bet I will. The vase was also free. It was set out on Free Friday at Eco Store. I knew it'd come in handy someday. You can find both these items at your local craft store (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.)

I took the filler and spray painted it with Rust-Oleum's Colonial Red spray paint. Then I picked up free paint swatches from ACE Hardware for the hearts. I grabbed a variety of light and darker reds and whites.

You'll want to buy a heart punch if you don't already have one... unless you're super good at cutting by hand. I defintly am not! I bought this punch from JoAnn's Fabric for $9 (with 40% off coupon).

This is the fun part. I had a ball punching out different colors of hearts. Guess I'm easily entertained.

The only bad part about the paint samples is that they have writing on the back. You'll need to glue two hearts together to cover up the writing. I used hot glue, but any glue should work.

Next, I used a thread and needle to create a way to hang the hearts on the branches. Thank goodness I save the little sewing kits from hotels!

I started out tying the two thread ends in a knot. This was tricky so I ended up just adding a dab of hot glue to the ends which kept them together.

Hang the hearts on the branches and viola! A festive Valentine's Day centerpiece.

 
Thanks for reading.  

USA! USA! USA!