Scrap Wood Heart

Making something out of nearly nothing…I love to do that…

Take these hearts for instance. They’re made out of scraps of moldings. End pieces that didn’t make the cut…Not big enough for a big baseboard project, just cast-offs...
Have you ever had a day like that, where every moment felt like a cast off…a scrap of something bigger?

Boy, I have.

Maybe that’s why I’ve got a soft spot for scraps…

 Those cast offs, can often be turned into something useful and even beautiful…

And with a little change in perspective, I’ve learned to see the potential for beauty in those days that feel like scraps of something bigger…

Of course it’s helpful to be on the beauty-hunt when you’re dreaming up projects…can’t you just see my sweet little hearts when you look at this pile of left over moldings?

I’d love to show you how we turned junk moldings into something beautiful…do you have a second?

Here’s All You Need:

*Pieces of Moldings (look for them at your local home improvement store)

*Paint (all of your favorite colors! I use Americana Decoart Acrylics)

*Americana Decor Crackle Medium (to give the new moldings a vintage look)

*Small piece of Thin Plywood

*Wood Screws

*Liquid Nails

~First I squeezed out puddles of my paint onto a paper plate…

 ~then I brushed my moldings with lots of different colors…no pattern involved here…just paint!(when the top coat of paint crackles, these different colors show through- so make certain the colors are cohesive)

 ~When the paint was dry, I brushed on a generous coat of Crackle Medium…

 

 When the crackle medium was dry (I used a heat gun to dry it quickly), I painted a coat of paint over the crackle medium- (I painted it on thick)—*I used a blue/gray paint and a tealish green as a top coat on my moldings- because those are the colors I wanted for my hearts …

As the paint dries, it crackles! It’s just amazing how this stuff works…(I’m going to crackle an end-table next!)When  the paint is dry…draw or print a heart and cut your moldings to the correct length…

Use your pattern to draw a heart onto your thin plywood and cut out the shape… this piece of plywood will replace the paper heart as your pattern…

***you can use a jig saw if you don’t have a band saw***

Using liquid nails, glue your moldings onto another piece of plywood… Make sure they’re in the order you want them in your finished product…

Notice the way the moldings are glued on in a jagged fashion…that’s because I placed the ‘prettiest’ crackling in the most noticeable places on the heart… Let the moldings dry over night…

 Trace your heart pattern onto the back of your molding piece (on the plywood)…we used short wood screws and attached the plywood to the moldings to make sure they stayed together !

Now, cut out your heart!

 

 Sand the edges smooth and a little rounded…

Then paint the edges! I used the Crackle Medium on the edges but you certainly don’t have to!

I painted the back of my hearts, but again…you don’t have to! 🙂

To make them look even older you could do a little sanding on the front…I absolutely love them…

And to think they started out as scraps!

Have a beautiful day today my friends xo

This is part of my Year of Reckless Crafting

For this post I used Crackle Medium!