Are you ready to see some Valentine ideas?!? Do you decorate for Valentines at all? I didn’t do much at all until a few years ago.  I found a few Valentines decor items here and there at boutique shops that were easy to store and pull out for the few weeks I have Valentine’s Day Decor around.  It’s a fun, refreshing way to bring some cheer to the home after the Christmas decor is packed away for another year.  Today I’m sharing something new I created and sharing how to make Valentine Art our of Junk.

It’s time for a Dose of DIY again and our category for January was, fittingly, Valentines.  Now while I don’t care for gaudy, over-the-top, cheezy, hearts-everywhere, Valentine’s Day decor, I do like a bit of red and hearts tossed into the vintage, eclectic mix of my decor.  So I thought it would be fun to make something Valentine-y for my decor.  Something made out of some junk I have that I think is cool but hadn’t done anything with yet.

I have a pile of these boards – they are mdf boards that used to be large display cubes from a departments store.  I hauled them home one day last spring and they were so big and heavy I decided they were too much trouble to try to reuse as the display pieces they were intended for.  My hubby busted the cubes apart and cut each board down a bit to cut off the staples that had held the cubes together.  And I kept the stack of boards to use to create – something.  Whatever I came up with when the mood struck 😀

For this project I also pulled out some old spindles, test tube brush cleaners, and old wooden drawer pull, antique metal hinges, a roll of music paper from a player piano, and some scraps of fabric.  Lots of fun textures and a mix of eclectic pieces.

I started by covering the board on the top and sides with pieces of the roll of music paper.  And to create some of my letters I used a hand saw my hubby gave me to saw an old chair spindle in half.  I also cut the end off the smaller piece because I thought it was still too long for what I was doing.  Had my hubby been at home I might have asked him to run out to his shop and cut the spindle for me.  But since he was at work and I was into my project I was very glad I had the little hand saw so I could get the job done right away.

I’m going to insert here that Mod Podge would probably be the best glue to use for adhering paper to a board.  It’s what I planned to do at first – thus the photo of the ModPodge and paint brush.  But then I realized that my bottle of ModPodge was almost empty.  And I knew if I used it I’d have to wait for it to dry before adhering my letters to the paper covered board.  And I wasn’t in the mood to let ModPodge dry.  So I plugged in my trusty hot glue gun and used it.  I used hot glue to attach every single thing on this Valentine Art Piece.  It worked great, it went fast, and I’m happy with it 🙂

For the ‘L’ I used an old wooden drawer pull and part of the spindle I sawed in half.  I added a linen-look, dotted ribbon with a bit of red ribbon detail along the edge of the drawer pull.  Hot glue for this too.

The ‘O’ is a heart cut from a scrap of fabric in red and white plaid.  I added another scrap of fabric for more texture and interest.

The ‘V’ is an old hinge with tiny, vintage pom-poms glued in the screw holes.

And the ‘E’.  The ‘E’ is made with the other part of the spindle that has had a bit of trim hot glued to it, and 3 vintage brushes from a science lab.  Test Tube cleaners I assume!  All hot glued in place.

A couple ribbons, a bit of lace, a few more miniature pom-poms, and a scrap of grain sack for fun details and my Valentine Art made out of junk was complete!

I had fun playing with the piece, trying different ways to display it.  A pom-pom garland that I created last weekend while watching football goes well with it, as does the sheepskin rug it is sitting on.

I love pom-poms and thanks to my sister I have been making quite a few of them!  I’ll show you very soon how I’m making them and turning the into fun garlands and tossing them here and there in my decor.

My paper flowers and vintage deer from my Christmas decor look fun with my valentine are too.

I also have a place on the wall I’d like to try hanging it – if I can talk my hubby into cutting a keyhole slot in the back of it.  Or perhaps it will stay propped on the shelf this year and next year I’ll pull it out and get the keyhole cut then so it can have a new place in 2017.

This little decor project was really quite fun – maybe the most fun project I’ve done for awhile!  You could create your own so easily – just look around your house and craft room – you could use old silverware, any old hardware, bits of broken pottery or china, whatever your favorite vintage pieces are or whatever strikes you as you create!

Now – go see what my friends created for Valentines!

Jill

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