Valentine Photo Holder

Once your kids have outgrown their ABC blocks, recycle them into a fun way to display photos of your Valentine.

All you need are the blocks that spell out love (or the name of your Valentine), red and white paint, 2 wooden hearts, paintbrush, pencil, rag, & hot glue.

 Paint the blocks white...

 While the blocks are drying, paint the hearts red...

 Dip a rag into the red paint and wipe it across the raised parts of the blocks. You can use a paintbrush if you prefer.

 Use the block as a guide to draw a straight line approximately 1/2 inch from the edge of one of the hearts...

 Add hot glue along the line...

 Glue the hearts together. The hot glue is just thick enough to leave a small gap between the hearts where there is no glue so there's a place to insert a photo.

 Glue the blocks together, then glue the hearts onto one of the blocks...

 Add a photo to the hearts and you have a lovely way to display your Valentine.

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts,  Rae Gun Ramblings, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, The Dedicated House,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love,  Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie,    Domestically Speaking,  The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster, Nap Time Creations, The Foley Fam,  Finding Silver Pennies,  French Country Cottage,  Knick Of Time, Lou Lou Girls, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Savvy Southern Style,  Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Dabbling And Decorating

Follow Your Heart To Signopoly

Have you heard of Signopoly? They are a family owned business based in North Carolina.

They create a large variety of items that are perfect for door hangers or art. All of their pieces are made from quality wood, cut, & sanded to perfection.

I teach a lot of painting classes at Junk Mama's General Store, & Signopoly is my "go to" for class projects.

I'll be teaching a painting & wax class in February using this heart from Signopoly...

 You can get hearts with smooth fronts, but I like the grooves cut into this one. It's a great guide for adding multiple colors.

 I chose to paint the heart with the colors Fluff, Soft Pink, & Peony from the Dixie Belle Paint Company.

 I painted the heart going from the lightest color to the darkest. So, I first painted the entire heart, including the sides, with the color, Fluff.

Then I painted some of the sections with Soft Pink.

 Then I added some Peony.

 To make the lines more crisp & give the heart a more finished look, I added Dixie Belle's Beast Dang Wax. I love this wax! It is water based so it dries to a nice hard finish. The wax has no odor & is eco friendly.

If you add a dark wax directly over the paint, it can be a little hard to control the depth of color. In some cases that's okay, but I wanted the black wax to be heavy in the grooves and more subtle over the paint. To have more control over the black wax, I used a rag and applied clear wax over the entire heart first. I didn't worry about getting the clear wax into the grooves because I want them to be dark.

 Then I used a stiff wax brush to apply the black wax making sure that I got it down into the grooves.

 I used a rag to wipe the black back a little so it was more subtle outside of the grooves.

 Here the left side of the heart has wax & the right side does not. It's a good example of the difference the wax makes.

 You can skip the wax if you prefer, but I love the look with the wax.

 Here is the same heart using a different color combination, Fluff, Vintage Duck Egg, & Antebellum Blue...

Here are a few of my other projects using cutouts from Signopoly...

And, on occasion, I just order plain squares of wood from Signoloy to use in art projects...

Need a custom piece? They do that too.

Check out Signopoly! I'm sure you'll find something you love.

I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts,  Rae Gun Ramblings, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, The Dedicated House,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love,  Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie,    Domestically Speaking,  The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster, Nap Time Creations, The Foley Fam,  Finding Silver Pennies,  French Country Cottage,  Knick Of Time, Lou Lou Girls, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Savvy Southern Style,  Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Dabbling And Decorating

Sew Pretty Table Makeover

There was a time when sewing tables were beautiful and made to fit in with your decor. When your sewing machine was tucked away, the cabinet looked and functioned as a table.

The sewing machine was missing from this one that I found in an antique store, but I knew it would be beautiful as an end table.

 I also knew that a little paint would bring out the detail. I chose the color Dusty Blue from the Dixie Belle Company.

 I added a little black glaze to highlight some of the detail.

This is the perfect example of the phrase, "they don't make 'em like they used to!"

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts,  Rae Gun Ramblings, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, DIY Showoff, Keeping It Simple, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, The Dedicated House,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love,  Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie,    Domestically Speaking,  The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster, Nap Time Creations, The Foley Fam,  Finding Silver Pennies,  French Country Cottage,  Knick Of Time, Lou Lou Girls, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Savvy Southern Style,  Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Dabbling And Decorating