How to Upcycle Your Photo Christmas Cards into a Valentine's Day Banner

As I started taking down the Christmas decorations and storing them for next year,  I thought maybe I could find a way to upcycle my Christmas cards from this year.  I decided to use them to make a Valentine's Day banner.  This turned out to be such a fun and easy project!  And I think you will like it too!  What better way to enter the season of love than to be surrounded by photos of friends and family!

Here's a list of the materials I used to make this Valentine's banner: 

• Photo Christmas Cards
• Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter (or stencil)
• Marker or Pen
• Scissors
• Hole Punch
• Twine or Ribbon

Step 1:  Sort your Christmas cards.  I had A LOT of photo cards, but a handful of other cards too.  I only used the photo cards for this project.  I sorted all others into a separate pile to be stored for Christmas crafts next year.  

Step 2: Use your heart shaped cookie cutter or stencil to trace a heart around the picture you want to feature on your banner.  Some cards only have one photo and some have lots.  I positioned my cookie cutter a few times before deciding which photos to use for my banner.  Depending on the layout of the card you are using, you may need to rotate your stencil slightly to get the desired image inside your heart. 

Step 3: Once you have all your hearts drawn, carefully cut them out. 

Step 4:  Using your hole punch, punch two holes in the top of each heart shape.  Be careful not to punch too close to the edge of your heart or over anything (or anyone) important!

Step 5:  Finally, use your twine or ribbon to string your hearts together.  Your banner is complete and ready to display!

I love how this little banner turned out!  And I hope you will give it a try too!

Make sure you check out these other Harris Sisters blog posts for ideas on how to decorate for Valentine's Day:

• How to transform your Christmas Tree into a Valentine's Tree
• O Valentine Tree! O Valentine Tree! (vintage Disney cards on an aluminum tree)
• A Valentine-y Kitchen Tour
• Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
• Pink Depression Glass

Cheerwine Pound Cake

The star of this pink pound cake recipe is Cheerwine soda -  or more specifically "The South's unique cherry soft drink." While not everyone may be familiar with this soda, if you're from the South, you probably know all about the distinct cherry flavor of Cheerwine.

This cake capitalizes on that cherry flavor and adds in a complementary almond flavor to make a one-of-a-kind bundt cake. 

And it's pink, which makes it perfect for sharing with your Sweetie for Valentine's Day! Serve it up with some maraschino cherries and a side of Cheerwine and you've got a sweet date.

Cheerwine Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups butter softened (3 sticks)

3 cups sugar

5 large eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup Cheerwine

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

20 drops red food coloring

maraschino cherries to garnish

1. Lower the middle oven rack to the next to lowest position (or raise the top oven rack to the next highest position). This will allow enough room for the cake to rise without hitting the rack above it. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Cream until mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs to the mixture one at a time and beat well.
4. Alternate adding flour and Cheerwine, and mix until incorporated.
5. With mixer on low speed, add salt, extracts, and food coloring.
6. Thoroughly grease a bundt pan and add batter to pan.
7. Bake approximately 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before flipping out onto wire rack. Glaze with Simple Vanilla Glaze, if desired (recipe follows).

Simple Vanilla Glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

1-2 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1. Combine sugar with 1 Tablespoon of milk. Add additional milk if needed for desired thickness.
2. Drizzle onto completely cooled cake by the spoonful.

Notes:

This recipe makes a very thick batter.

While the Cheerwine itself lends some of the coloring to the cake, most of the pink color comes from the food coloring that you'll add. If you'd like a deeper pink, add more food coloring.

If you can't find Cheerwine in your area, you can substitute another cherry flavored soda, such as Cherry Coke, Cherry Pepsi, or Cherry Dr. Pepper.

The flavor that comes through the most in this cake is the almond extract. If you're a big fan of the cherry flavor of Cheerwine, you might want to substitute cherry extract for the almond extract. You can also add cherry extract to the glaze instead of vanilla, if desired.

We opted to make the cake without a glaze, and it was delicious!

Other Soda-Flavored Cakes You Might Like:

• Cherry Dr. Pepper Cake
• 7-Up Pound Cake

If you're a fan of cherries, make sure to check out these other cherry recipes too!

• Glazed Cherry Breakfast Cake
• Miss Daisy's Frozen Cherry Salad
• Cranberry Cherry Sauce

How to Transform a Christmas Tree into a Valentine's Day Tree

With a little over a week until Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share what I did with my dining room Christmas tree this year. Instead of packing it away with all the other Christmas decorations in early January, I left it up and changed the decorations to make it into a vintage Valentine's Day tree.

Here's what it looks like now:

Valentines Trees are becoming increasingly popular, and you see a lot of them using pink, white, or vintage aluminum (silver) trees. I wanted to see if I could make a Valentine Tree with a regular green Christmas tree base. 

For this particular tree, I started out with my dining room Christmas tree, which is a green pencil tree with colored lights. It looks like this at Christmas:

I removed all of the candy-themed ornaments, the tree topper, and the tree skirt, until I was left with just the bare, lit tree. (If you have a lot of red or pink ornaments on your tree, you can leave those on the tree and just remove any Christmas-y ornaments.)

After removing all the Christmas ornaments, it was easy to create a Valentine Tree! I gathered my supplies and then added them to the tree in the order listed below. 

What Supplies Do I Need to Make a Vintage Valentine Tree?

• red and/or pink vintage glass ornaments
• vintage Valentine's Day cards
• small heart-shaped candy boxes
• floral picks to create ornaments and a tree topper
• pink or red fabric to create a tree skirt

This first batch of Valentine's Day cards are actually from The Harris Sisters' childhood. My favorite one might be the one that says "I like you for a lot of raisins" and shows some sort of odd raisin cake. You can read our thoughts on Raisin Creme Pies here. And check out that Amazing Spider-Man card - guess Spider-Man was just as popular in 1980 as he is now.

This next batch of Valentine's Day cards are some that I've collected. They are much older than The Harris Sisters' stash above, and they all have great graphics!

Here's some close ups of the collection:

And the next most important decoration for the tree was a collection of pink and red vintage glass Christmas ornaments. Red is a popular color for Christmas ornaments, so you probably have some similar ornaments stashed away too! I only have about a 1/2 box of pink ones, but they look right at home on the Valentines Tree.

And after adding the vintage ornaments and the Valentine's Day cards, I used floral picks to create a set of conversation heart ornaments, a few larger heart ornaments, and a tree topper. I nestled two small heart-shaped candy boxes into the branches. The cards are also just nestled into the branches, and they seem to be staying put with no further assistance. If you'd like to secure them a little better, you can use small clothespins to clip them to the branches without damaging the cards. I wrapped a pink floral tablecloth around the base of the tree to create a tree skirt. (If your Christmas tree has a plain red tree skirt, then you're good to go!)

Here's the finished product:

Make sure you check out these other Harris Sisters blog posts for ideas on how to decorate for Valentine's Day:

• O Valentine Tree! O Valentine Tree! (vintage Disney cards on an aluminum tree)
• A Valentine-y Kitchen Tour
• Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
• Pink Depression Glass

Hope we've inspired you to keep a tree up and decorate it for Valentine's Day. (If you're a person who hates putting away all the Christmas decorations because you'll miss the lights, this would be a great solution to keep those lights out longer!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

O Valentine Tree! O Valentine Tree!

This little project was super quick and easy and came together in just one morning with a little help from my toddler girl.  We always assemble an old fashioned tinsel tree in her bedroom for Christmas, and as we were taking down all the other Christmas decorations and storing them until next year, I held out on her tree.  Even after all the ornaments were packed away, I still lit her color wheel each night at bedtime and shone it onto the (bare) tree because our baby girl loves it so much.  Then one night, my husband said "why don't you make it into a Valentine's Tree?"  And that's all it took!  The seed was planted and we ran with it.

For this project, I simply hunted down a couple of packs of vintage Valentine cards featuring her favorite cartoon characters, and they became our ornaments.  Lexi loves Scrooge McDuck and the Mickey Mouse gang, so I knew where to start.  A quick eBay search turned up an unused pack of old Ducktales Valentines and a second pack featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Of course, I started with her all time favorite- Scrooge McDuck, and put him in a red heart cut out, and affixed it to the very front and center of the tree.  

Here are a few other of the sweet little Ducktales cards that we transformed into ornaments.  I used colored paper to make little cut outs, and Lexi helped paste the Valentine card to each one.  We used ribbons to make bows on many of them, and then just attached a wire hanger to hang it on the tree.

And then as we neared the end of our project (and my tot's attention span) some of our ornaments became decidedly more simple in nature.  But I just sprinkled them all around the tree, and the effect was every bit as charming. 

The package of Mickey and Minnie Mouse cards were all "Hollywood" themed, which I thought was adorable too.  Lexi also really liked these sweet cards, and we had a big time decorating her tree with them. 

So there you have it!  A super fun and simple project that added a ton of sweet Valentine charm to Lexi's bedroom for this season.  And as her tastes change, we can certainly make new ornaments in the future, although I can't see myself getting rid of these.  They are just so sweet, and will always remind me of her 2 year old preferences.  :)

 
And we are still running her color wheel every night- just now on her Valentine's tree! Happy Valentine's Day with love from our house to yours!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

These scratch made brownies are the perfect treat for Valentine's Day or Christmas because of their pretty red color. And they're super easy to make! Give this recipe a try for your Sweetie!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Brownies

1 stick butter

2 oz milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp red food coloring

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

Cheesecake Mixture

8-oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine butter and chocolate. Heat in 30 second intervals in the microwave until completely melted. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and red food coloring. Add in the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Batter should be red. Add flour and salt into the bowl and stir until mixture is just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
4. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
5. Prepare cheesecake mixture. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Gently swirl two batters with a butter knife.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.
7. Place pan on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving. Brownies may either be served at room temperature or chilled.

Notes:  

The more swirling you do in step 5, the more of a marble texture you will create.

This recipe makes a lighter red velvet. If a more traditional red velvet is desired, start with dark chocolate and add an additional 1/2 tsp food coloring. 

A Valentine-y Dining Room Tour

As promised, here is another look around at more Valentine's Day decorating that I've been cooking up recently- this time in the dining room.  I really do enjoy unpacking my seasonal treasures with each change of season, and carefully helping them to find their place.  If they need cleaning, I clean them up.  Many of these pieces are vintage wares, so I try to take very good care of them now that they have found their home.  

Here's the big picture of the dining room all gussied up for Valentine's Day.

And here's the bird's eye view of the table setting. 

Now, let's zoom in to see the close-ups.  The blue dishes that you see here are our every day dishes. We have had them for several years now, and I still enjoy them.  I accent each place setting with our Irish linens that we brought back from our trip to Ireland a few years ago.  I always add roses to the Valentine's Day table- just because.  And the tea cups and saucers are new to me this year.  They were a Mother's Day gift from John and Lexi last year.  Their pretty pink floral pattern made them a no brainer to add to this table setting. 

Here's a closer look at some of the tea service pieces.  I remembered that I also had a couple of pretty tea strainers in my kitchen cupboard so I also added those to a couple of the tea cups. 

I like to sprinkle the Valentine's Day table liberally with "love birds".  Here are a few of them now!

This little creamer bird is new to me this year.  He is small but very sweet.  I thought he matched this table well. :)

And remember my pink nursery rhyme glassware?  I decided to display it in the dining room along with a few other vintage finds. 

It would seem that I have a thing for old children's cups and plates.  I found this one recently in a little antique store and couldn't pass it by. The image in the center of the little girl feeding her teddy bear is just darling, but what makes it for me is that the sides of the plate say "I go here, says the Fork" and "I go here, says the Spoon".  I swoon. 

On that same antiquing trip, I also found this gorgeous pink poodle bank.  It's ceramic, and it doesn't have a stopper in the bottom.  The head actually comes apart to access your coins inside.  You can see the two pieces are tied together with a ribbon to hold everything in place. 

And finally, I also found this huge antique German Valentine's Day card recently.  It is a 3-D card that stands about six inches tall, with pop up and honeycomb features.  These cards were popular in the early 1900s, but aren't super rare.  Most of them feature scenes like this one.  Very pretty, and very Valentine-y.  They sure don't make them like this anymore. 

So there you have it.  My Valentine's Day dining room is ready for big day.  As you can see, this room is decorated very differently from the kitchen.  And it's not a traditional red and pink decor with hearts everywhere.  I used my soft blue dishes and accented with other pastel pieces, sprinkling in lots of floral and lots of vintage finds.  Decorating is highly personal.  It doesn't have to be precise or to anyone else's liking but your own.  It should always be fun and always be filled with things you love.  :)

For more Valentine's decorating, be sure to take a look at these other blog posts from the Harris Sisters:

A Valentine-y Kitchen Tour

Pink Depression Glass

Sugar and Spice, and Everything Nice

Vintage Playing Cards Turned Valentine's Garland

Valentine Decor, Galore

And we wish you are your sweetheart a very Happy Valentine's Day!

A Valentine-y Kitchen Tour

Can the calendar be right?  It's already February, and Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  Oh heavens!  Wasn't it just Christmas yesterday?  Thankfully, I started my Valentine's Day decorating right after I put away all my Christmas decor, so even though I don't feel quite ready, I guess I am more so than I thought. 

Here's a look at my Valentine's kitchen tablescape this year. 

And here's the bird's eye view of the whole thing in action. 

Now, let's zoom in on a few favorites for you.  This is one of my very favorite pieces, added last year. It's a shelf sitter set of salt and pepper shakers.  These kissing kiddies are adorable and fit right in to the tablescape.  I sit them atop a vintage pink depression glass cake stand. 

Here's another favorite- probably my MOST favorite- it's my vintage Humpty Dumpty cookie jar, and I have shown him on the blog several times before.  I always look for reasons to bring him out.  I think his pastel colors match this table perfectly, and with the addition of my "new" vintage nursery rhyme table glassware this year, I think my Valentine's decor is starting to take on a new theme. 

Here's another look.  He sits atop another cake plate.  You will see lots of pink depression glassware, candy conversation hearts, and vintage Valentine Cards on display.  It's fun to find these treasures through the year and bring them all together for this tablescape.  

Oh, and my mini chalkboard now advertises "Kisses" for only 25 cents.  It's been fun dressing it up with each change of seasons. 

Oh, but my piece de resistance are these amazing vintage honeycomb wedding bells.  I hung them from the kitchen chandelier this year overlooking my Valentine's tablescape.  I LOVE them so much. And I have to say a HUGE thanks to Magpie Ethel for her inspiration of vintage bells that she uses for her New Year's display.  When I saw them on her blog, I nearly did a backflip.  They are amazing. She is amazing.  If you love treasure hunting and decorating with vintage items, read her blog.  It is everything.  Enough said. 

Here's a peek at the table with the wedding bells hanging down in the center.  I really do like the effect.  They were such a cheap thrill, and are pretty readily available on both eBay and Etsy.  And what's more, they fold flat for storage, so they take up very little room in the storage box. Another plus!

I usually add a special piece of two of depression glass to this table setting each year, but this year I opted instead for new napkins.  The napkins I previously used with this table were nothing special, so I had this set embroidered from an Etsy vendor, and I love how they turned out.  The "Be Mine" napkin is my favorite.  So I placed it at hubby's spot at the table.  Now that's true love.  Speaking of which, that's one of the other napkins.  The set included "Be Mine", "True Love" , "XOXO", and "I Love You".

I used the "I Love You" napkin for my own place setting. 

So that's the quick look at this year's Valentine's tablescape.  Stay tuned for more Valentine's decorating in the dining room too. How are you gussying up for Valentine's Day this year?

***UPDATE***

Just when I thought I wasn't going to add any new pink depression pieces to the collection this year, these lovelies found their way into my life.  I was out window shopping in one of my favorite shops this weekend when I spied two of these gorgeous sherbet glasses. 

There were only two, and the shop owner said he just put them out.  They came from Ohio and had only been on display for a couple days  when I found them.  He also told me this pattern in the Miss America pattern, which was very helpful so I can keep an eye out to hopefully find a couple more one day.  What a wonderful find!