DIY Valentine’s Name Hearts

I’m not usually big on decorating for the Holidays {except Christmas}, but this year so far I really seem to be getting into it! Maybe it’s just having a little person around that makes it more fun. Anyways, whilst rummaging through all the Valentine’s stuff on Pinterest I came across this :

{The Peanut Paintshop}

I didn’t really look into at the time, but I remembered it the last time we were at Hobb Lobbs and thought I’d pick on some wooden hearts & ribbon and just make my own version {I still wanted to find the picture/source for my inspiration though!} Looking at it now, it isn’t a DIY tutorial anyways – just showcasing some of their handywork which can be purchased for $9 a heart – so maybe check them out if you don’t want to make your own.

In case you don’t remember, this was our “decorating” of the window area for winter {observe cute “Let it Snow” plaque from my brother} 

And then we made some cute Heart Garland and removed Mr. Snowman which void left beside the window. So we painted us up some hearts.

I found these at Hobby Lobby for $1.47 – there were smaller ones available for $0.98 {I think.}

We also picked out a color for each of the hearts as well as a color for the lettering. Wes surprised me by picking red {he’s usually more of a blue kinda guy.}

Espresso, Violet, Vivid Pink, & True Red

I also got a variety pack of brushes {I only ended up using the little foam brush though lol,} a stencil sheet, and reversible pink & purple polka-dotted ribbon.

To paint my hearts I simply squirted a big blob in the middle and then used a foam brush to spread it out evenly. I made sure to paint with the grain on the top of the hearts. Even with rinsing and drying the brush between each color, it only took about 10 minutes. I let them dry for about 30-45 minutes.

after one coat of paint

The pink & red looked pretty good with one coat, but not so much the purple. Probably because that heart had some darker wood grain – so I did two coats on each of them. I let the second coat dry for about 2 hours {Probably didn’t need that long, I was just busy doing  naptime}

To stencil I stared in the middle & worked my way out. Wes’s name has an odd number of letters so I started exactly in the center. I have an even number of letters so I stared to the “left-center” with ours. The lettering took a while longer because I need to let each letter dry before doing the next one so the stencil didn’t smudge it.  – I probably could have done it faster free hand, but I specifically wanted the look of the stencils, so it was worth the extra time. Also, I was careful to wipe off the stencil after each letter because the paint comes off most easily when wet.

I ended up using pink on the purple heart, because I was afraid the espresso wouldn’t show up clearly enough

You can’t see the wood grain this well in “real life,” but our fancy new camera captured it pretty well. After messing around with how I wanted to use the ribbon, I decided on a simple loop knot for each heart. I cut 1 foot of ribbon for each one.

I hope this picture makes sense – it’s kind of like tying a tie…

wrap the ribbon around itself and insert the end through the loop

This knot gives you two “options” for display.

The two sides of the bow – I originally though I was going to use the side on the right, but I ended up liking the look of the knot side better 🙂

I used a regular 1″ nail and just hammered right through the middle of the ribbon tabs to the back of the hearts. – They were a little to long so I had to leave some of the nail sticking out, but it worked just fine.

notice the tiny nail hole from me hammering to far on the pink one??

Here’s a close up of how they look hung: