Rustic Valentine

Primitive Heart Shapes

Valentines Day is the one day of the year when you can put hearts on everything.  This year, make it last longer, with some rustic valentine hearts to decorate your home and garden.

Hearts are a beautiful and ageless motif - they can be used as a border, with alternating upside down hearts or arranged in another design burned with a wood burning tool.

Twigs are bent carefully into a heart shape, and used to decorate shutters, or even to make into a wreath or a trellis. The best types of twigs are those that are flexible and easy to bend, without snapping, like willows. 

If you're lucky enough to have a few willows in your garden feel free to prune those long whippy branches, they'll just make more.

Landscapers might be a good resource for willow branches - ask them to set them aside for you.  Any kind is good, even weeping willows, with their extremely long slender drooping branches. 

For crafts, it's best to use them before they leaf out in the spring.

Trellises with willows or other twigs can be decorated with large or small heart shaped wreaths.

Candy tins in the shape of a heart are favorites of mine - I throw them in the bonfire to give them an aged and rusty appearance.

Hearts made of wire or even barbed wire give your garden a whole new look.  The little jig that I made to curve the wire around in a heart shape can be made bigger to create larger sized hearts.

Or, just use a regular wire coat hanger to make a wreath shape, wind vintage fabric around it and hang on a door knob or coat hook for a great primitive accent.

A friend gave me a tub of all kinds of treasures, including some tiny heart shaped white tiles.  I cleaned them up and used them on a gazing ball, which I called an Encrusted Cannonball;

Here are more hearts on my Pinterest board;

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