Home is home, be it ever so humble

(Proverb)

This past year or so has become the year of the door decoration for me.  It might be because at one point in the not so distant past, I went almost an entire year with the same Christmas wreath on my front door.  As recompense, I’ve resolved to create door designs of my own this year for the important days of our lives.  This is my interpretation of a pin I saw on Pinterest recently, of a door decoration for Valentine’s day.

Materials:

• Four precut balsa letters in the 6” to 7” size.  I chose XOXO.
• One precut wood script.  I chose “Love” for Valentine’s Day.
• Wooden 2” craft sticks.  I don’t know what they call these in the package, but they look like short popsicle sticks.
• 1 package 1” wood heart shapes.
• Two rolls of complimentary ¼” wide ribbon.  I chose a roll of solid deep pink and a roll of pastel polka-dot pink.
• Acrylic project paints.  For this project I used white, red and blue, and mixed the pink and purple myself.  I also had a small tub of red glitter paint that I used on one heart.

Tools:

• Hot glue gun
• Exacto Knife
• Paint brushes
• Small bowls to mix paints

The instructions are pretty simple.  Paint the wooden letters in whatever colors and patterns you choose.  Choose darker or more distinct colors or patterns for these pieces because they form the base of your project on which the script will need to stand out.  Oh, and make sure you get your edges painted!  Then paint your script in white or a very light color, and I also lined the edges of the script with a red glitter paint to give it dimension.  (A toothpick is a handy tool to have here.  It helps clean up your outlines so they look nice and straight.)  Lastly, paint four or five of the heart shapes in varying complimentary colors to embellish with. Try some glitter paint in the same color over your painted hearts to give your project a bit of sparkle.

(I’m envisioning Modge Podge and fabric covered letters for a project as well.  This would really give a project some creative patterns to work with.)

Once the paint is dry, start assembling.  I used the crafts stick to anchor the letters together, by hot gluing them to the back of my project.  Place the sticks so they’re not visible from the front or in an area that will be covered by your embellishments.  You may need to use smaller pieces, so carefully cut those with your Exacto knife.

Once the base made of letters is dry, turn the project over and glue the painted script to the front, along with your painted hearts.  Then embellish with bows made of ribbon.  I found the cutest bow idea on Pinterest, and this is my interpretation of how to do it.  It only takes a couple of bows to dress out your project.

Finally, create your hanger.  I braided three pieces of ribbon together, long enough that after I glued each end to the back of my project, I could still tie a bow at the top.  This would be a good spot to use jute as well.  Make it your own!