‘A Love Note Countdown to Valentine’s Day’ Heart Frame

Combining nature, inexpensive supplies, and my love for Valentine’s Day I created a rustic heart frame (made out of gorgeous red branches from our yard) to hold a love note countdown to Valentine’s Day!

I love crafting with items from nature as well as inexpensively. Also, I just love Valentine’s day. If you are interested in my why’s for that love they are outlined in my last post: Rainbow Affirmation Kitty Valentine’s Box

My Inspiration

In addition to the red branches from the yard, my inspiration for this project came from daily ‘What I love about you’ hearts. For several years now I have been doing a heart a day for my daughter from February 1st through the 14th. I got the idea from my niece who does it yearly for her kids. It is so simple and my daughter loved it! I would simply cut 14 hearts, write a thing I loved about her on each one, and then would tape one daily to her door as a countdown to Valentine’s day.

Last year, I needed to do it differently as we were apartment living. We had moved several states away to a state I had never even been in so we didn’t want to buy right away. Instead of taping them to her door I hung them from streamers attached to the top ledge of the door. I didn’t want to damage their door and we needed that deposit back! I did the same for our son even though he was just a baby and put one a day by the coffee pot for the hubby as well. It was fun!

I tell you all that as it was a combination of all of those things that brought me to this idea. I wanted something cute to hang the love notes on.

Plan change before the project was even done

Just the other day though my daughter said to me, “Mom are you going to do the heart thing again this year? I like all the different hearts all over my door.” We semi recently purchased a house and it remains in half started update chaos so I really could just tape them. Especially since I eventually plan to paint the doors.

‘So now what do I do with my half made love note holder?’ I thought to myself. I decided on ‘What I love about our family unit’ love notes that would countdown to Valentine’s Day! I’m excited to get it started on February 1st.

Ok, on to making your very own heart frame for your love notes.

Supplies needed to make the love note countdown to Valentine’s Day heart frame

• Branches
• Twine, small rope, string, or ribbon
• Construction paper or other choice paper
• Mini clothespins
• Marker
• Glue gun
• Masking tape
• Scissors
• Branch snips

Time to Create

Cutting out the hearts for the love notes

I had a heart stencil that I used but had I not, I would have started by making my heart template the grade school way.

If you are not sure what I mean by the grade school way be sure to see the image below. Simply fold a piece of paper, draw your heart half, cut it out, and use that heart to trace your other hearts.

Now grab your heart template, paper, and a marker. You will need 14 total hearts. Trace out your hearts and then cut them all out. I used pink and red construction paper but you could use any color or type of paper you have on hand.

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Making the template for the heart frame

Since the heart notes were so perfectly heart shaped I wanted the frame to be more rusticly heart shaped. I knew I would need a template to work off of to avoid a pile of incorrectly cut branches.

For the template, I grabbed masking tape and some thin strips of construction paper. You could also use string.

First I laid out my construction paper hearts so I knew what size to make my template. I then taped a rough heart shape on my counter with masking tape. Finally, I layed out the thin strips of paper where I wanted the string strung and taped them down.

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Construction of the heart frame

Cutting the branches

Now it is time to construct your heart shaped frame. Using the masking tape as a guide I cut my sticks to the lengths of the six sides and laid them out on the template crossing them at the ends.

Attaching the branches to make the heart frame

Then I began attaching the branches at the cross sections. First, I tied the twine around the sticks. Then I simply wrapped and knotted it until it loosely held the branches. I found taping the sticks to the counter helped in the process.

Next, I got out the hot glue gun and more securely attached the branches. Once the glue had dried I trimmed off the excess string and trimmed down the branches where they crossed.

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Next, I wrapped more twine at the junctions to hide my mess of string and glue a little. I simply looped the string around the branch and pulled it tight. Then wrapped it around the connection area in no particular order. Finally I knotted the ends and trimmed the excess.

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Making the clothesline (Heartline) for your love note countdown

Next I made my string lines across the heart using my template as a guide. I just looped, wrapped, and knotted them until they felt secure. Then I trimmed the ends and held those down with a dab of glue.

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Hanging the heart shaped love notes on your heart frame

Finally, I hung the little heart notes up with the mini clothespins. Starting February 1st I will take the hearts down and each day will put a new one up with something I love about our family unit written on it. The final heart will get added on Valentine’s Day!

I am loving the way it looks hanging in our dining room! A pop of LOVE for Valentine’s Day!

Your turn to create

I would love to hear if you gain inspiration from this post and make your very own LOVE NOTE COUNTDOWN TO VALENTINE’S DAY HEART FRAME!