I don’t know about you but I can’t stand junk mail. CAN’T STAND IT. I have signed up on a few lists and websites that promise to cut down on the amount of trash mailing you’ll recieve but so far I haven’t noticed any difference. It breaks my heart to go to the mailbox and pull out a mountain of paper, only to dump 90% of it directly into the recycling bin. Sure, recycling is better than trashing, but in the old “reduce, reuse, recycle” slogan, recycle is a last resort if you can’t reduce or reuse. Lately I’ve been making it my mission to reuse things that come into our house before I throw them out, and this morning I had an idea for what to do with just a small handfull of that dreaded junk mail.

See, I love decorating for holidays, but always get a twinge of guilt at using up perfectly good, brand new materials to make my projects that I know won’t last… or even worse, going out to buy supplies to make a project that I know won’t last. So why not use something I’ve got a lot of lying around (paper) and make it into something better? This project was so easy even a child could do it – in fact, my four year old did. Amelia cut out almost every one of the hearts. She’s a crafting machine. They don’t have to be perfect, they don’t even have to be close. In fact it’s the randomness and texture that makes this so neat, don’t you think?

My kids loved doing this project with me and they also loved the final effect. The kept saying that the hearts looked like birds flying off the wall, which is quite lovely, don’t you agree? I used these hearts for a backdrop for the kids’ valentine photo but that’s going to stay under wraps for just a few more days – you’ll see it on Thursday, promise!