Paper Heart Palooza

At first I wasn’t sure about this table setting. I’ll be the first to admit, Valentine’s Day is not my favorite holiday. Not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I don’t get super excited about it. It kind of creeps up on me every year and I think I just tolerate it, have a few extra chocolates than usual, and then February 15th comes and it’s over. But dang is it fun to decorate for! I’m not the biggest fan of pink and purple, so those colors don’t get a lot of airtime in our house. It is really fun, though, to have an excuse to go all out frills and colors, patterns and polka dots, pink and red and purple EVERYTHING. So yes, at first I wasn’t sure about this table setting. But now I think I’m in love…

I know I originally said that this post would be going up on Sunday, but I just couldn’t wait to show you how it turned out! Plus, I figure that if anyone is going to use this as inspiration for their own Valentine’s Day table, well, now you have an extra day to set yours up and enjoy it.

At first glance, this might seem complicated, but trust me… all you need is some colorful scrapbook paper and a whole bunch of MnM’s. The only other embellishments that I grabbed were some cute paper dessert cups (Target) and pretty paper straws (Michaels), but those are totally optional. Everything else, I found around the house… challenge yourself to use what you have! And the very best part? You can knock this out in under 30 minutes, easy. Heck, if you can grab a helper to share in the heart-cutting, I think you could do it in 15. The first step is to get your base squared away. I started with a white table cloth, dark woven chargers, white plates and cloth napkins, silverware, and regular drinking glasses.

Yes, I know the table cloth is wrinkled. You can go ahead and judge me. 🙂 I blame it on being in a rush with no time to iron, but if you can manage it… iron your table cloth. It will make your set up that much nicer! If you can’t, don’t sweat it. You’re about to add A LOT of distractions into the mix and pretty soon you’ll barely even see the wrinkles! I also plopped a blue glass vase in the middle for the start of my centerpiece. After you have the basics, it’s time to Valentine-ify this sucker! PAPER HEARTS GALORE!

I just cut out a bunch of paper hearts from different colored scrapbook paper in different sizes. I went for the romantic rainbow effect, branching out from the usual pinks, purples, and reds. Once you’ve got your hearts cut out, go ahead and sprinkle them all over the table. See? The wrinkles aren’t so obvious anymore. 🙂 Now it’s time for my favorite part… the party favors!

For this step, I just filled a pink, polka dotted paper cup with Valentine’s Day MnM’s and added a fun message to top things off. The cheers signs were stickers that I found at Michaels and wrapped around toothpicks. If you don’t have stickers, you can make your own out of scrapbook paper (this would be a good spot to put someone’s name if you wanted to use it as a place setting) and glue them around the toothpick. How fun and festive!

At this point, I took a step back to see how things were looking… the only thing that seemed to be missing was a little more pizzazz to that centerpiece.

When in doubt, always go for more MnM’s! Our family is big on this candy and there is never a family party that goes by without a dish of them out for people to enjoy (usually, the peanut kind). So what better than to add some red, white, and pink to our centerpiece? I filled the glass vase partially full of the candy and topped it off with a nod to those party favors- a gold paper straw sporting the festive “Cheers”!

And with that, our Valentine’s Day table is all set to go! I LOVE how it turned out… the colors of the hearts bring such a cheerful, almost spring-like look to the whole thing and the bright pink cups, paired with the candy and red straws bring in just enough of the holiday theme. Now I’m wishing I had set the whole thing up earlier so we can enjoy it for longer! I don’t know… I have a feeling this one might stay up for another week or two. Especially if there is chocolate to enjoy. 😉

Happy Valentine’s Weekend! How are you celebrating? Any paper heart decor out there? Leave a comment below and tell us about it!