What's black & white & red all over?

My Valentine's decor (and first ever blog post!!!)! 

First things first, WELCOME TO DUCT TAPE & HOT GLUE!!!  I hope you like what you see and come back regularly!! 

Now, about my Valentine decorations. I wanted to keep things simple and inexpensive.  Everything shown I either 1) already had or 2) purchased on sale and/or with a coupon.  The love sign shown above I found in the dollar bin at Target!!  I can't count the number of items I've found in that section of the store.  I always stop and look at what they've got anytime I make a trip to Target (which sometimes feels like once a week especially since those are the brand of diapers that we use).  The candles, ribbon & candle holders shown above were all things that I already had on hand.

I then rummaged around my bookshelf and found two books that had the word "love" in the title.  I removed the paper book covers and {bonus!} found that one book was red and the other was black!  The small, square frame was purchased at Michael's with a 40% off coupon.  I already had the houndstooth scrapbook paper which I used to cover the mat.  Michael's is also where I found the red, glitter heart that's in the frame.  It was in a pack of six (for $1.50!!) and they were actually ornaments.  I cut off the ribbon loop, hot glued it to the middle of the frame and TA-DA!  Cute, right???  The picture is of my wonderful hubs and I sharing a little smooch on our wedding day (have a cavity yet??) ;o)

For my cupid art, I again raided my own closet and found these two black frames (as well as the one I used for our wedding day kiss picture), the damask tissue paper (yes, tissue paper!) and the red & black cardstock.  A quick note on the tissue paper.  I am a notorious neat freak and don't like a lot of clutter which means I typically throw a lot of things away.  Tissue paper & ribbons are one exception.  Any holiday/birthday, I make sure to save the bags, tissue paper & ribbons.  I've lost count of how many times the "scraps" have come in handy for one reason or another.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the cupid shape.  Another side note: the Silhouette was the only thing that I wanted for Christmas this past year and my wonderful mom made sure I was unwrapping it come Christmas morning.  WOO HOO!!  I actually knew I was getting it, so I was able to tell my BIL (who drew my name for Christmas) to get me a gift certificate to their on-line store.  I've been finding every excuse possible to try it out.  Lucky for me, we've got several January birthdays & of course Valentine's Day.  It is an amazing tool to have in your craft kit and I highly recommend purchasing one, if you can.  They regularly have special promotions where you get the machine and several products at a discounted price.  You won't be sorry - I promise!!!

All in all, I was really pleased with how my entry way decor turned out.  I was also very happy that I was able to create this look for a whopping $5!!!  CHA-CHING!  Again, thanks for stopping by and checking me out.  I hope you'll come back!!