Create your own heart shaped – Love sign

As I was getting better with my jigsaw, I thought I should do a more challenging task.  I used jigsaw to cut out my medium shaped heart when I did my rose decoupage set and I also did a similar diamond shaped HOME sign, but I thought cutting out identical four small hearts would be a bit more challenging.

So I went for it.  I drew out a shape on a piece of paper, traced it on the mdf board and cut it out using jigsaw very carefully and concentrating like crazy.

I repeated the step with the other hearts.  I was doing ok until I was getting a bit too cocky and my last heart turned looking like a very skinny heart and nothing like the other three! So I took my time I made sure I did it slowly and paid attention.

Once the hearts were cut out, I sanded them slightly to have nice and smooth edges and surface.

I had a set of four almost identical hearts!

I painted them using Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old Ochre. Sanded in between the two coats and waxed using clear wax.

When you are happy with them, mark and drill a hole where you want the string to go.

I wanted to make a sign, which spells – LOVE, but you can make signs and use words you like! Check out the diamond shaped HOME sign  I did here.

I printed the font and size I needed for my love hearts on my printer and cut them out so it was easier to trace the letters.

Use tracing paper and place it between the surface of the heart and your font.  Trace the outside line of the letter using a pencil or pen.

Then remove the paper and the tracing paper and the letter should be visible on the surface.  Don’t worry if your letter is a little wonky and not straight, it can be all fixed when you go over with the paint.

Using a fine brush and some acrylic paint, trace over the outside line and then fill out the rest of the letter.

 As I have said before, two thin coats are better than one thick coat and if you made any slight mistakes with first coat, you can go over nicely when you do your second coat.

 

Repeat on the rest of your letters and let it dry.

Once the letters were dry, I was happy with the signs, but as I wanted a more rustic look, I used some dark wax and went over the hearts to create a little darker sign.

Then just attach some twine and you are done!

Here is the finished result..

Home sign