A vintage rotary phone (DIY…pink) plus a digital cutting file download for cute conversation hearts.
Guess what I found at the thrift store?! A rotary phone! A really dirty cream colored rotary phone. After I cleaned the heck out of it and took it apart, I spray painted it pink(!)…including the phone cord. Here’s how I’m using it in my Valentine’s Day decor.
I wish I could say this phone was originally a pink phone, but it’s not. No one needs to know, right…except that now I told you…ha.
You see, whenever I swing by the thrift store, I’m always looking for rotary phones. They’re so fun to find, because ‘the telephone’ truly has changed so much in the last 50 years. Phones and vintage cameras have both changed so much!
I’ve always hoped I’d find a pink rotary phone… a girl can dream! Well, I recently found this one, only when I found it, it was filthy! I really wish I had a before picture to show you just how bad it looked, but I don’t. It was white or maybe cream/off white/smokers teeth ;), only this one had really yellowed in the sun. It was covered in big informational emergency stickers, and the telephone cord was filthy too.
Whenever I find something this dirty, I’m so quick to clean it up right when I get home, that I forget to take before pictures. I took the phone apart after we figured out that it wasn’t in working condition (which is okay, I really didn’t care if it worked…I only paid $3 for it). Once I had all the plastic pieces clean and dry, I got it all ready to spray paint pink. We left the center circle the original white so that I wouldn’t lose the cute numbers, or mess with the rotary feature of it.
Isn’t it so cute?!
For now it’s part of the Valentine’s Day vignette, but soon it will probably be a play toy…who knows.
We made some cute conversation heart cut outs to put all around it. Here are some of my favorite of the 31 different conversation hearts in the download. We had fun coming up with a few of the funny sayings, like: “amazeballs” and “adorbs” make me giggle. There are so many fun things you could do with all these heart cutouts. You can add them to your Valentine’s Day decorations, add them to a paper garland or just use them as little love notes to add to sweet Valentine treats.
Here are all the different conversation hearts you’ll get with this download:
1. #1 fan
2. Adorbs
3. All Mine
4. All My Love
5. Amazeballs
6. Babe
7. Be Mine
8. Blerg
9. Call Me Maybe
10. Call Me
11. Dang Girl
12. Eat Cake
13. Hello Lover
14. Hello
15. Hot Stuff
16. Hugs
17. I’m Yours
18. Let’s Kiss
19. Love Bug
20. Love Ya
21. Maybe
22. My Baby
23. My Love
24. New Love
25. NoBiggie
26. So Fine
27. Sweet Talk
28. Text Me
29. True Love
30. UR Cute
31. XOXO
It’s two different cutting files (.dxf and .svg) and two different image files (.png). The .dxf and .svg should work with a variety of cutting machines, or you can use the .png files to trace your own cut file in your Silhouette (or other) software. You could even use the hollow .png files as a printable for your kids to color and decorate their own valentines for school.
Click the link below to download:
Digital Cutting File | Conversation Hearts
Have a great day! I’d love to know, when it comes to Valentine’s Day, which is the color you decorate with more? Red or pink? For me it’s pink all the way.
Tara says
Love the phone!!! Love your blog!!! Can u please share what color spray paint u used ? And did u use primer?
Xo, smiles
Tara
Kami says
Hi Tara!
Thank you!
It’s Rustoleum’s gloss candy pink. I did not use a primer. 🙂
bridget {bake at 350} says
I love all of the sayings you picked for the conversation hearts!!!
Can we talk about the GENIUS of spray painting an old phone?!? I NEVER would have thought of that….in a million years! Even the CORD?!? OMGosh…I so want to head out and look for one this instant!
kami says
Thanks Bridget!
Yes! You should find one! It’s funny because I was worried it would come out looking weird, but it worked great! For the cord, I just stretched it out on a piece of cardboard and taped it down in a zigzag and just flipped it to get all sides. If you look close, the cord doesn’t look as good, but it works. 🙂
Happy Hunting! 🙂
nest of posies says
these are soooo cute, kami! and i LOVE that pink phone.
for the cut outs – i have the 1st silhouette, what option did you use for that? or did you design the file. i would love something like this for a friend’s birthday.
so basically a cut out of HAPPY BIRTHDAY. what would i use to make that in the silhouette? do you know?
kami says
Hi Kellie!
Tell me what you had in mind. My husband helps me make everything like this. draw a picture and snap a picture of it and we can make it the file.
This could be something we do together and blog together!
Sonja Gustafson says
Nice job on the phone! The is so cute! Can I ask if you found that the paint on the cord didn’t cure? I have painted a phone 1950’s aqua for a prop in a play and it turned out great, only the cord won’t dry – I even bought a new cord at the dollar store and the same thing happened again. The paint even comes off on anything it comes in contact with!
kami says
Yes, it was still sticky, and it was coming off on things a bit. It wasn’t too bad though.
Sorry for the hassle. the body of the phone took the paint great!
Amy says
Hi,
These hearts are so cute! Do you know if it will work with a Cricut?
Thanks!
kami says
I don’t think it will. you need to be able to use our cutting file for it.
Amy says
Hi,
Thanks for letting me know that this won’t work with the cricut. Do you make and sell this already cut out?
Thanks!
Lisa says
Such a great idea — thanks for sharing it! You obviously did an amazing job restoring that rotary phone but I’m curious about the little corkscrewed wires you used for the display?
What are those exactly and where can I buy them?
Thanks!
Lisa | THINK LIKE A BOSS LADY
kami says
I just took thin wire and wrapped them around a pencil to make the wire look like a corkscrew. Sorry for the late reply…just now seeing your commnet.