I Love Valentine's Day!

by Linda Hunt at Creatively Yours Custom

The red and pink add a bright splash of color to the gray landscape of February. Let them warm your heart and your home. I’ve got some easy craft ideas to bring the holiday home for you and your family.
Life is busy, busy, busy! Time is at a premium for all of us. I found the following ideas fit easily into my schedule and did not cost me a lot to create.

“Love in a Bottle” is a fun idea and very different. Write short love notes to your sweetie. Roll them up and secure with a piece of yarn or a small red ribbon and push them down into a glass bottle. Close the bottle with a cork stopper. Write a heartfelt toast to your sweetie and tie it to the bottleneck with a ribbon. Deliver your special creation along with a bottle of their favorite red juice. Enjoy!

“Custom Candy Bar” lets you show what you’ve got to show the love to your sweetie. You are limited only by your imagination. Get one of their favorite candy bars and remove the wrapper carefully to use as the template. Use colored paper or construction paper to make your custom wrapper. I used glossy white paper for mine. Secure the back with tape. Glue on hearts or decorations and add ribbons. I used the hugs and kisses X’s and O’s on mine with red curling ribbon to which I tied a silver heart charm in the middle. You can add tags and notes or anything of your choosing to dress up this special treat. Serve it on a silver tray and watch the smiles come across their faces.

“Valentine Wreath” is really sweet. Glue a variety of candy bars, lollypops and other wrapped treats on to a small grapevine wreath. Add wadded up colored tissue paper between the sweets. Finish with pretty ribbons and bows for a really sweet treat.

It seems fitting to get some knowledge on the meanings tied to the color red. It is the color of passion and its presence gets our mental energies flowing. On the more intense side, red is associated with aggression, anger, and even danger. On the less intense side, red can represent control, valor, and courage.

Red stimulates conversation--people talk more when exposed to warmer colors, especially red. On a physiological level, red triggers the appetite and heightens our sense of smell.

Red is a highly visible color. If you have a red chair in a space, it would likely be the first thing the eye goes to. It makes sense then, that you should avoid using the color in an interior space designed for rest and relaxation.

Pink is in the red family. It is red with white added to it. Pink is most often associated with fun and celebration, with the lighter pinks representing and being associated with sweetness and femininity. Embrace red, it is your color to love!

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This guest post was written by Linda Hunt, an interior decorator and owner of her own design firm: Creatively Yours Custom. Linda has 25 years experience in the interior design and home fashion industries specializing in window treatments and senior downsize decorating.

E-mail Linda@CreativelyYours Custom.com to subscribe to Design Online, a free monthly newsletter chock full of decorating tips and sales. Also visit Linda’s website http://www.creativelyyourscustom.com/ and blog Creatively Yours Custom Interior Design.