Valentine's Craft

My friend has been hosting craft nights every couple

months or so.  Sometimes I do the craft

she's got going on, and other times I have brought my own thing

or simply shown up to have some girls time.

Last week, we made these cutie Valentine's boards.

When I put all of my Valentine decorations out, I didn't really like the combination

on the mantle because I had chosen a pale background and there

was too much red.  So I decided to paint my board pink.

Everyone else followed my friend's example & made theirs red.

And my board was from the scrap pile in the garage, 

(and our second vehicle is taking up the whole garage because the 

engine is spread out all over as Kidney Bean tries to figure out

why it doesn't run well, so no saws available)

so it ended up a little longer than all of the other ones, too.

And I love it.

Valentine's 2x4 Decor

As prizes for the games at the yellow & gray

baby shower, I made some

Valentine decorations to give away.

And I ended up loving them so much that I was sad to see them go.

But I made sure to take some pictures so

I could remember how they looked when I get out to the garage & cut some wood.

Since my husband was working on the table during the week

leading up to the shower, I had to choose some wood from the scrap box.

But it turned out okay.

Just not okay enough to have more that are the right size.

Bummer, man.

 I think this LOVE sign is a 1x4, about 7 inches long

 This conversation heard was a 2x4, about 3 1/2 inches tall

And the Be Mine sign was a 2x3, about 12 inches wide

I don't have a way to cut vinyl, and my painting skills are very lacking,

at least when it comes to writing clearly and cute-ly.

So what I did for the letters was:

-- open PowerPoint

-- make a box the size of the wood (for instance, a 1x4x7 rectangle)

-- insert a text box into the rectangle and type the word I want on the block (LOVE)

-- choose the font & change the size so it fits in the box

-- move the text box to the side, delete the rectangle, and do the next one

-- when done with all desired text boxes (3 in my case), print it out

-- I cut the words out so there was one word on each piece of paper (I ended up with 4)

-- use painter's tape to secure the paper to the painted/dry block

-- use a ball-point pen to trace the outline of the letters

-- remove the paper and carefully trace the imprint of the letters left by the pen (I used a Sharpie)

-- love and enjoy the result

**It's a good idea to make sure that the paint on your block is dry;

otherwise your Sharpie will stop working**