How to Design a Valentine Tree

Why I Designed a Tree FIlled with Love

As the Christmas season was coming to an end, I decided I wanted to enjoy our pretty tree a little longer. I knew I could get away with keeping our faux Balsam Hill Pine up through January dressed in its wintery guise, but what excuse did February have? That’s why, this year, I created a Valentine's Tree. Read on to see how I did it.

Transitioning a Christmas Tree

We created a pretty simple Christmas tree this year so the transition was easy. I first removed all of the Christmas balls but kept all the white lights and icicles. This step was very quick and with a semi-bare tree, I was able to then plan for February-appropriate decor.

Making a Valentine's Tree Topper

I considered keeping our glowing Moravian Star tree topper but decided that a Valentine's tree needed to better reflect Valentine’s Day. I considered a grapevine heart wreath covered in dried flowers but decided I’d like to just use found materials and make my own. This is how I did it.

Start with a basic shape

I took an old cardboard box and cut two identical free-form hearts. I then hot-glued a 10” doubled-up piece of floral wire about 4” deep inside the two panels and extended it out the bottom, so that I’d have something to wrap around the tree’s top branch. If I do it again, I will also extend the wire from each side so the heart has more stability when topping the tree.

Once the wire is secured, hot glue the hearts together. This step helps the topper to be more ridged and stable.

Designing the front of your heart topper

Start by designing one side of the heart with your dried flowers and moss. I used my professional-grade Ryobi glue gun, some reindeer moss, and the dried flowers I harvested this year. If you want to learn how to dry your own flowers, see my blog: Learn how to dry your own garden flowers. I didn’t have much of a design or plan, but I just kept filling in the cardboard as I went around the heart and eventually, one side of my heart was completely covered.

Designing side 2

When I finished side 1, I realized leaving the second side of the heart blank wouldn’t look very nice from the side view, so I cut up a coloring book, quickly glued it to the surface of the heart, and glued some leftover moss around the edges to finish it off. In retrospect, I would cover this side first with contact paper or something simple to make the job easier. You could also fill the back side with moss if you have it.

The Heart-Shaped Tree Topper

Here is the result. Not bad for a trial run. Later I’ll show you how it looks on the tree.

Hanging hearts on the Tree

Now the rest of the tree needed some LOVE-ly decor. I found these pretty heart ornaments in rose gold online. They are sold in sets of 45 so I only ordered one set. You can also get them in silver, pink, gold, red, and a pink, red & white combo.

Accenting with Vintage Valentine Cards

I also found some vintage Valentine ornaments to add some character to my tree. There are many types of interesting card ornaments to choose from on Amazon, so look around. Some are more childish which would be nice if you are creating this for your children or grandchildren.

The Unveiling

When all the little rose gold hearts and vintage Valentines were hung, I added a few large dried flowers and some colorful felt ball garlands that I had lying around.

I am very pleased with how this turned out and I’m happy I started a new tradition for our home. Don’t worry, if you’ve already removed your Christmas tree this year, you can plan for next February or grab some fallen branches from outside and place them in a garden pot to make a smaller Valentine’s Branch Tree. Anything is possible. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Host a Fabulous Bouquet Bar for Valentine's Day →

How to Create a Pretty Mini Bar with Items You Already Own

Do you find it difficult to turn away pretty decanters, cast-off crystal, or pewter candlesticks? Whether you relish rummaging thrift shops every once in a while, or you inherited your grandmother’s formal dining room and you don’t have the heart to give it all away, rest assured, you can create something fashionable and functional that will be a big hit the next time you entertain.

A few years back I hosted Christmas Eve for my extended family which, at the time, consisted of 9 very light drinkers and 10 teens and pre-teens. I needed to create a semi-dry mini bar but I wanted it to be spectacular and not just a kitchen counter filled with soda, iced tea, and fruit-infused sparkling water.

First, find a Bar

Everyone today seems to be buying stylish, rolling mini-bars. While I like the look of them, I could never seem to find space to store one in our farmhouse. And their mid-century modern style never really fit with my antiques anyway. That being said, I don’t own one, nor do I have a traditional, custom bar anywhere in this home, so when I wanted to create a holiday mini-bar, I needed to find my own way.

Tucked in a corner of my dining room is this antique dresser or bureau that I acquired from my paternal grandmother’s home. For many years I used it in an obvious space, a bedroom, but eventually, I grew tired of using it in a traditional way. So I had my son and husband move it down to the dining room where it happily lives today. I actually really like it here because its many drawers are very useful. I now have a practical space to store my vintage tablecloth collection and the many cloth napkins I keep pressed and ready for pop-up entertaining. I decided to use this as my bar. But you can virtually use anything, an existing sideboard, a built-in bookshelf (which I’ve also used), anything. I even converted an outdated corner TV hutch into a mini-bar after I saw the same thing in Pottery Barn for over 3K- but that is in another room so I’ll save that for another blog.

Look around and use your imagination instead of your wallet. You’ll find something cool at home and when you do be sure to photograph it and post it in the comment section for our idea bank.

The Embellishments

Next, I’d like to encourage you to always use what you already have around your home to create this very pretty mini bar worthy of conversation. There is no need to buy anything except maybe an inexpensive knock-out crystal piece - but if you do, be sure to get that from a thrift shop. Upcycling is better for the environment and giving a piece a “second chance” just makes the heart warmer.

So take a walk around your home. Go to your attic, basement, or anywhere you stashed all the items from your long-lost relatives that you didn’t quite know what to do with, and just couldn’t throw away. Open every hutch and sideboard, every cupboard and buffet, and see what pieces you’ve forgotten about. A few glass or pewter candlesticks? Grab them. Some mismatched crystal wine glasses? Snag them. In fact the more eclectic the pieces, the better. There is no need for a full set of anything here. You are creating the bar of misfit toys.

Fancy Decanters

If you haven’t already inherited a few of these little gems, then I suggest taking a trip to your local thrift/consignment shop. There you will find a treasure trove. Visit their glass or china section and basque in the glow of unwanted decanters.

Decanters were very popular mid-century but aren’t used very much these days. Unless you come to my home on Christmas Eve. I think it’s a shame because they are elegant and in my opinion, they display liquid beverages best.

Far back in antiquity, decanters were used to transport beverages like wine and spirits that could have lingering sediments. Decanting liquids gives the liquids room to breathe which enhances aroma and flavor. Wine and some spirits continue to be decanted to this day.

Remember, when you find your perfect-for-you decanters, be sure to give them a good cleaning. Here is a great resource for that. The decanters I am sharing are just a few that I inherited. I have some that came to me without stoppers, and I don’t let that stop me from using them. I love them just the same. But I do really embrace the ones with fancy stops.

pretty Pitchers

And as you’re probably suspecting, I also have a small collection of vintage glass pitchers. I think I only purchased one on the Facebook marketplace. All the others were entrusted to me by relatives who knew I would actually use them.

It’s true, I use them all the time because I just think they are so beautiful. For me, the glass works well because as you’ll see later I embellish my mini-bar with loads of candles, and I love the reflections in the mirror, but for you maybe pottery pitchers are more your style. That’s great. Use whatever you have that speaks to you.

Is it an Ice Bucket?

Who knows. I inherited this glass bucket from my parents who probably used it for their Swanky Sixties Soirees. I’m not sure it was an ice bucket, but I love it and use it as such. I can easily see when the ice melts and it has a handy silver handle for quick refills. Everyone has something like this around their kitchen. Any pretty glass bowl will do. And DO NOT BE AFRAID to pull out your vintage punch bowl either. I use mine all the time to actually serve punch. It’s only outdated if you care that it is. It happens to be a very pretty and effective way to serve teenagers something fancy.

toggling Tags

It’s important your guests know what they are drinking so I like to use labels.

For this occasion, I served two fancy lemonade pitchers whose content originally came in bottles from Trader Joe’s. Nothing too complicated here. I just added a little ice, a lime, and then poured in the bottles. Voila…pretty pitchers full of cheer for the kids to enjoy.

To label the pitchers and decanters, I like to sometimes make interesting theme-appropriate tags to match the occasion or you can also just keep all-occasion brown kraft tags and twine in your mini-bar drawer, as I do, so they're ready to swing whenever you are.

Add some sparkle

And to top it all off I try to keep tall and short mercury, pewter & glass candle holders around so that I can just bling up the mini-bar on demand. You can find silver or gold or even pink mercury votives here. I think having a few of each allows you to easily change your mini-bar for interest if entertaining the same friends over and over. I always have a stash of votive candles and dripless tapers in one of these drawers and I hunt for sales on pillar candles wherever I go. But the cool thing about making your own mini-bar is that you can change it up with every whim, season, or holiday. For instance, you can use black votive candles at Halloween to accent your ghoulish punch bowl or red candles on the fourth of July next to small galvanized buckets full of blue jello shots.

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Thank you for reading this blog. I hope it inspired you to carve out a little unsuspecting portion of your home to create a festive corner for refreshment. I’d love to hear your ideas below.

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Learn: Why do they call it mercury glass? The reason it is sometimes called Mercury Glass is that in the early days the internal coating was sometimes mercury or a mercury product. However, mercury proved unsuitable and dangerous, and today silver nitrate is used instead.

Create: Here is a lovely Virgin Blueberry Lime Cocktail recipe created by my friend Rose. Please let both of us know what you think.

Inspire: The holidays are right around the corner. While visiting family or friends, show up with a vintage decanter or fancy glass pitcher Be sure to attach a little tag and “gift them” your beverage of choice. Cheers!

I’m always here to help you with your creative journey. Please sign up to receive blog post notifications and follow Studio Sprig on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I look forward to connecting. If you’re a blogger, what’s your favorite SEO Tool? I’ve had much keyword success with RankIQ. Learn more here.

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Virgin Blueberry Lime Cocktail