For Valentine’s Day this year, I wanted to do a simple surprise for Mardy.  The best part of this little project is that you don’t need to go out and buy extra supplies – you can use whatever you have lying around your craft table!

I created a simple installation (yes, I like to do installations – remember our anniversary one?) on a blank wall in my apartment.  I taped up six red envelopes and filled them all with memories!

Rather than simply taping up the envelopes, I wanted to create little backdrops for each to make it more visually interesting. So I used (from top left): a doily, a cut square of patterned tissue paper, Martha Stewart paint samples, a piece of kraft paper I tore and crumpled up, gold lined little cupcake liners, and a glassine envelope filled with heart confetti.  These were things I had lying around my craft table (I literally dug through each of my drawers to see what I could use) – so this is a chance to get really creative and use materials you might never thought could have this use!  One of my favorites is the kraft paper, and all I did was crumple it up.

As for the red envelopes themselves – I bought them at a craft store in Hawaii (tip: whenever you travel, shop their local craft stores!).  And those heart stickers – I didn’t have any heart stickers, so I cut these out freehand from washi tape.

And then I filled them with all sorts of things!  I filled them with things that were special and meaningful to both of us, and it was just as much fun for me to look at all these things again!

Each of the six envelopes were filled with different contents that all evoked different memories:
1 // Instax Polaroids of us (many were taken from my 365 Day Project I did last year)
2 // Ticket stubs from events and movies we went to (The Beatles LOVE show in Vegas, our entrance tickets to the ruins in Tulum, Mexico, the last movie we watched in theaters, tickets to The Bodies exhibit)
3 // Business cards from restaurants we went to on our travels (shown: A Hofbrauhaus coaster from the brewery in Munich, a coffeehouse in Taiwan, and a trendy restaurant we went to in Dubrovnik, Croatia)
4 // A page of text messages he sent me when we were first dating (these were taken off my old phone, and we both hadn’t read them…it’s surprising how many emotions this stirs up!)
5 // Score sheets from the games we play (mostly Scrabble)
6 // A Valentine’s Day love note

It’s such a sweet and simple project, and it was fun to watch his face as he opened each envelope and relived everything.  So if you find time this Valentine’s Day, relive your memories with your partner!  Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday! xo.