Valentine's Day Mantle & Large Envelope Tutorial

 

Do you have a fugly fireplace? Well, I do. It's yucky and plain, but not anymore! It looks so cute and Valentiney (my new word). I actually had this idea last Valentine's Day, but never got around to doing it. I think I got burnt out making the envelope bunting. However, this year I was determined to cover up the fugliness with a giant envelope.
Materials:

• 36in x 48in white tri-fold poster board or you can chose a different color
• scissors
• ruller/measuring tape
• exacto knife
• glue
• 2 rolls of red 1.88in duck tape (If you think you'll make a mistake, get three)
• felt
• heavy duty double-sided tape
• pencil

Before you get started, you're going to want to measure your fireplace opening. This will determine how big you need to make you envelope. My fireplace measured just a bit over 36in x 31in.

 

Now that you've measured your fireplace, take your tri-fold poster board and cut the flaps off. To do this,  take your ruler and place it along the crease of the flap fold and use this as a guide. Cut right along this fold. You should end up with three  pieces.

 

Here is where you'll need to know the height of your fireplace. You're going to overlap and glue the smaller board piece on top of the larger board piece. Combine the two pieces so that it is at least one to two inches larger than the height of your fireplace. You'll need the extra portion to secure the envelope to your fireplace.

 

Take the last piece of board and mark the center on one of the long edges. Since the poster board is 36in in height, mark at 17.5in on one edge. This is where the point of the envelope will be. Take your ruler and make a triangle out of the last poster board. Don't glue this on yet.

 

It should look like this.

 

 

 

Take the duck tape and start trimming the edge of envelope tip. I made my tape edge about 5/16" wide.

 

 

Trim the bottom portion of the envelope before you glue down the envelope tip. I glued the tip down and then realized that I had to nudge the tape under the flap...do the bottom first. When the bottom is done,  glue down the envelope tip and trim the top portion of the envelope.

 

 

Since the envelope flap is made out of two boards, you'll want to cover the area where they butt next to each other. I chose to use the duck tape to make three decorative lines across the envelope flap. The center line is covering the area where the boards meet. I also made one line across the bottom of my envelope. This is where I ran out of duck tape :-(

 

 

I finished the envelope with a large felt heart, but you can decorate it however you want. Doilies would be nice too. Use your imagination. To secure the envelope to the fireplace, I used double sided 3M tape along the back top edge of the envelope (this is why you needed the extra length for the height).

 

There you have it. A super simple Valentine cover up for a fuggly fireplace. Next year, I want to add pink envelopes all over the tile portion. What do you think?

 

 

Check back for my Valentine's Day Dollar Store Butterfly tutorial.