I love celebrating valentine’s day with my kids and my hubby, but I thought it would be fun to take a slightly different approach and have a party for my mommy friends. I choose to go with a black, white and red color scheme because I have the most fabulous black and whiteappetizer plates that I just had to use, black and white paper mache letters spelling “love” from my sister’s bridal shower and a red burlap banner from my fall decorations. My banner had a brown ribbon on it so I just flipped it over and hot glued a black ribbon on the back side and now it’s reversible!

I LOVE burlap and I am all about making craft projects so I bought 3 1/2 yards of red burlap {with my 40% off coupon} and went to town. I made the wreath, flower ball, pom poms, napkin rings and chair bows all with $8 worth of fabric!

I knew I wanted a simple table with a love letter from each of their kids as their favor, so with a little help from a babysitter and a couple of teachers, I got three reasons “why I love my mommy” from each child. I printed out their letters and framed them in DIY embossed wood frames. I love how they turned out! I placed one at each place setting and they looked absolutely beautiful on the table! I set the table with a white table cloth, two black table runners {made from a failed attempt at faux roman shades for my kitchen}, black napkins with a DIYnapkin ring made from a cling wrap tube, and a vase with a burlap flower ball. I really wanted black chairs, but my hubby was not going for it, so I tied strips of burlap and ribbon around my chairs and it gave them a whole new life. I love how simple they are but they add so much to the table. And of course who doesn’t love hanging pom poms to complete the look. 🙂

For the dessert table I used a piece of white muslin from my nephew’s pirate party, my faux roman shade and the burlap bubble wreath I made for the back drop. I love to bake so I decided that I would make the treats myself. I pulled out my recipes, made a quick trip to the store and with a combination of homemade and store bought items I created a beautiful display of bite sized treats and a four layer cake. The menu included a chocolate cake and red velvet cupcakes both frosted with the same cream cheese frosting to save time and money, black bottom cherry pie, no bake vanilla bon bons, chocolate and powdered donuts, chocolate covered strawberries, and my hubby’s famous Oreo fudge. I have been wanting some appetizer sized serving pieces so my wonderful husband gave me an early Christmas present and got the spoons and the sampler platter for me. I used a couple of black and white striped straws left over from another party and some burlap scraps to make a mini bunting for the cake. I  also used some scraps of the muslin to make flowers for my burlap wreath and cupcake toppers. Finally, I created my printables with standard love letter closures- love, xoxo and always and forever. {I tell my boys every night I love them always and forever.}

For my craft activity I decided that we would make a sign that complimented the letters from the kids. I asked my husband to cut a couple of left over fence boards, I sanded them, spray painted them white and cut out vinyl pieces for each sign. The signs read, “LOVE of a child is life’s greatest blessing” and I included their kid’s names to personalize each sign. I really wanted to use quatrefoil plaques but that wasn’t going to happen so I used the vinyl to create a quatrefoil border which gave the same look and left room for the names. I gave them the option of adding a hanger on the back or hooks and a ribbon on the top for hanging their signs. I was so happy with the final outcome. It was personal and beautiful!

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