"Love Note" Plaque

Happy Valentine's Day!

I was feeling the love making this fun plaque for my sweet husband. I love the way it turned out - a little rustic without looking too rough. :) I had originally intended to write a line from a favorite song inside the heart like I saw over at Tatertots & Jello, but after I did it, I decided I liked mine better without the words and I painted over them! ;)

I started by taking a couple of kind of ratty 1x3s and cut them down to 21" each.

I inspected each to find the least rough-looking side and laid them up on the work bench with the nicer sides facing down.

Then I took a couple of long-enough-for-the-job scraps (hence the mis-match) to attach to the back. So happy to use my Ryobi Air Nailer for this job - I seriously love this thing, and they're not paying me to say that! I put a couple of nails into each plank and I was done! I still get giddy when I use pneumatic tools just like I did the first time Ben showed me how to use one. Thanks, Ben. Love always.

To make it easy to hang on the wall, I set my Circular Saw to 45 degrees and mitered the edge of a smaller scrap 1x3 and nailed between the supports. I purposely attached it to two planks in the hopes of making the whole thing a little more secure.

Next it was time to sand. And sand, and sand, and sand. Fortunately, I got a new random orbital sander for Christmas and I got Brad a corner cat sander, so I tried both of them out on this project. I was impressed with what they could do on even such rough planks.

Time to paint! I started by painting the whole thing gray, then sketched a large heart with pencil (as lightly as I could - and could hear Ben shaking his head at me. Tsk, Tsk.) I taped off lines with painter's tape and then used an off-white to paint between the tape. I removed the tape, erased what I could of the pencil lines, and let it all dry before touching up with both the gray and white.

Ta-da! All done! I LOVE IT! And so did Brad, so that's good, since it was technically for him - but I sure did have fun with this one, so I guess it was a little for me too. ;)

I've finally decided to open an Etsy shop for some of my smaller pieces (I have very convincing friends!) and I think I'll add this one to the shop! Fun to do, and I love how it looks hanging up! And I can just picture it leaning on the mantle as part of someone's pretty, seasonal decor! :)