Use what you have decorating

I asked Strider last night if we had any scrap wood. You know, like he has some kind of workshop or something. Yeah right hee hee. Well he did find a couple pieces for me.

One was a type of fence post 4x4 thing, used as a stain sample at the architect's (hubby was a drafter before teaching). I was intrigued and knew I could do something valentine-y with it.

I gathered supplies like a random wooden heart from the craft drawer and ribbon scraps. I wanted to use some lettering, so I checked the chipboard I had. Most of my letters we black and white so I decided on red for my base color.

I found some really OLD acrylic paint from my tole painting days and covered it with two coats of red. Sanded the edges.

Since one of my puffy hearts says "be mine" I went with "true love" on this one. I covered the heart with pink scrapbook paper and sanded the edges down flush with the shape.

Then I grabbed some ribbon to decide how to embellish it. I first tied a bow but the ribbon was too stiff and it looked bulky. Ended up using a glue dot to secure a small band of this great "love-cherish-adore" ribbon from a CK kit.  Then I tied another ribbon piece and a fiber with some texture onto the black ribbon.

I printed a photo of me and Strider from our anniversary (13 years,baby!) in black and white. Literally just printed on cardstock and threw it in a frame.

Cute, eh? And $0 spent.


If you had a Cricut or Silhouette you could do endless things with any scrap material for nearly any holiday. This was grand fun. Think outside the box and see what you can create!