Scavenger Chic

Rustic Pallet Wood Valentines Heart

• By Joan
• January 14, 2016
• 56 Comments

I just put away the Christmas decorations and I’m already thinking about Valentine’s Day. Well, I did have an empty space on the wall where the pallet Christmas tree has stood for the last couple of months.

I could have even put up last years heart, but since I got a fresh supply of pallet wood for Christmas (thank you brother-in-law Bill), I was feeling junky creative.

I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day and it was not just about the Whitman’s sampler…OK, maybe it was just about the chocolate but it was also about showing someone your love. What better way than to put your heart out there?

Start your valentine heart by laying out strips of pallet wood for the background.  Mine measured about 19 inches square. I know it looks like it could be the size of a coaster, but it really is over a foot and a half square.

With newspaper or other large paper, cut out a heart pattern.

Cover the heart pattern with another layer of pallet wood.  Keep going until the heart is completely covered.

Pull the pattern out from under the pallet wood, place it back over top of the wood and trace around the heart.

Use the heart outline you just traced to cut out the  shape with a jigsaw or scroll saw.

Use finishing nails or builders adhesive to attach the heart to the background.

For one of my pieces, I wanted to include a love letter my grandfather had sent my grandmother while he was away at college. I never knew my grandfather, but his letters are rather special.

No love letters? Consider using your favorite song,  the song you danced to at your wedding, or even a favorite quote.

Since I wanted a little of the pallet wood color to shine through, I decided to print the letter out on tissue paper.  If you have never printed out on tissue paper, the process is rather easy…just wrap a plain piece of copy paper with the tissue paper and tape into place.  Where the tissue paper is folded over the plain paper is the end where the paper will feed through the copy machine.

The old letter was scanned onto my computer and enlarged until it was bigger than my 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  I was also able to get rid of the background sepia color by editing the photo.

The tissue paper was then pressed into the seams around the piece of pallet wood I wanted to cover and cut out.

Modpodge the letter into place.

The letter was sealed with another coat of modpodge.

For two more of the pallet wood pieces, used a  watered down mixture of brown and red to paint a rustic barn wood color on the heart.

When the barn wood color was dry, it was lightly sanded for that vintage, aged look.

The background was staying together with just the nails from the heart, but just to be sure, gave the back of the heart a couple of cross braces.

Finished up the heart with a simple rusty hinge…it doesn’t move anything, but it adds a little bling.

I have a couple more pallet wood heart options for you.  This one uses vintage spindles.

And this is my heart from last year. Also made from pallet wood, comes together really quick and also free! What could be better?

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