Have you ever wanted to paint a heart?
Getting both sides of a heart symmetrical while painting can be intimidating. When I have tried to paint a heart by hand, often one side gets larger as I try to perfect it. By the time I go back and forth from working on the different sides, the heart ends up being way larger than I intended.
I came up with this shadow painting trick to paint hearts, and I can’t wait to share it with you. I started by grabbing a bunch of scrap wood pieces. You can use canvases or paper too. Use what you have and have fun!
I used some leftover spray paints and sprayed just the top of my wood pieces. I didn’t need the sides covered or for the whole top to be really even. I was just trying to cover the middle of the wood piece well. I will show you why.
After I painted the tops, I sanded my signs a little with a heavy grit sandpaper. I wanted the color to be mixed a little with a rustic appeal. By sanding the signs a little, some of the color was removed to show the natural wood below again.
This next step is how you get your symmetrical heart. Remember the old elementary school trick of folding a piece of paper in half? Cut one rounded half of your heart, unfold it, and ta-da… perfect heart! So, I cut a bunch of hearts out of thin cardboard. You could use construction paper or even paper bags from the grocery store. Just something that will withstand a little spray paint. The hearts were different sizes and styles. I wanted a mix of different looks, and the different hearts helped create that. 
Now, I laid a cardboard heart on each wood sign and spray painted over them with a different color. The heart cardboard acted as a sticker shadow and allowed the new spray paint color to stay off the previous spray paint layer in the shape of a heart. Since this layer of spray paint is the top layer, you do want to spray paint the sides of your heart sign now.
My hearts were pretty perfect. I did a light sand job to rough the edges up a bit more and then the signs were complete! If you have been following me for a while, you might remember I did this painting trick on magnets before too! I think these would be so pretty in a gallery wall display, sitting on a shelf, or even given as a Valentine!
Do you give out Valentines? Matt and I aren’t a big Valentines Day couple, but I have created a number of different Valentines for our kids through the years. This notebook valentine was one of my favorites. It’s non-candy and can be used practically after Valentines Day has passed. Which is also what I also like about this wood sign…a wood sign with a heart is timeless! So, I might have to take a sharpie and write a few notes on the back and give these to my kids and friends this year!?!
What do you think? Would you try this technique to paint a heart? You can personalize this craft in so many ways. Changing the color is one way to personalize it to your taste. If you have scrap wood and spray paint too, then this craft is practically free! Enjoy! If you create some wood signs, I’d love to see them! Tag me with #spoonfulproject on social media, so we can all see your creations!
Is it cold where you are? Its been in the negative degrees and snowing off and on for weeks in Indiana. We are getting crafty and creative up in here to keep these kids happy, content, and add some color to our world. Cause let’s be honest if it isn’t snowing and white outside it is gray.
Let’s paint the sticks! I picked out some of my favorite colors and roped in one of my artists to help me out.
My Jeremiah was eager to help. I gave him the sticks and the colors and told him to paint them however he wanted. We used acrylic craft paint and a 1″ wide brush. He did one solid and then stripes on the others. I loved the colors he paired together.
Once he was done painting the sticks, I loved them. I loved the colors and you still caught the texture, but they didn’t seem quite finished. I wrapped some yarn around the tops of a couple, and that was exactly what they needed. I love texture and color and it’s so fun to mix contrasting elements. The sticks are rough and hard. The yarn is soft and light. They look awesome together.
This craft was practically free! I had all the elements already on hand. What a fun, inexpensive craft to do with the kids. You could even turn your sticks into the ends of flags and tie some fabric on with your yarn. The sky is really the limit if you use your imagination!
Do you like color too!? I always like to think my style is rustic-bohemian. I love rustic, natural elements paired with bright pops of color and patterns. What is your style? I’d love to know!
Thanks so much for checking in and following along with my projects! If you end up painting some sticks, do please share with me! Tag me on social media with #spoonfulproject so I can see it!
Do you love Christmas crafts as much as I do!? It seems that no matter how many I make, the following year I want to make more! Creating holiday crafts is one of my favorite holiday traditions and stringing together a fun garland is a fun way to add to the seasonal decor. In years past, I have made other 
How pretty are those colors all mixed up together!? I decided to drill a small hole in the center of each piece. This would allow me to later thread wire through to create a garland.
Once I had a big pile of scrapwood drilled and ready to go, I attached one to the end of a strong wire to tie off the end of my garland. I then asked for little hands to thread the pieces on. My Jeremiah helped me. I wanted the pieces to be random without any order of size or color. Having a child help with this creative step is fun.
We quickly realized that having all the pieces stacked neatly on top of one another was using up a lot of wood and our garland was getting heavy QUICKLY! We stopped. We took everything off and threaded our wire through a needle and then strung 1″ felt balls after every few pieces of wood. This really helped the wood pieces separate, give another texture, and help lighten the weight of the garland.
I LOVE how it came out. I immediately started sending pictures to friends who I know also have lots of scrap wood. It’s just too fun not to share.
A couple tips if you do this project,
We didn’t even have our tree decorated yet, and I was hanging my garland up and snapping pictures. Making something you are proud of is a crafter’s highlight. What do you think!? What colors would you hope your garland would be? We are decorating our house with more bright colors this year than in years past.
If you paint or have a child that likes to paint, you probably have gone through some paint bottles, right!? For years and years, I have just thrown these little bottles out when they seem to be empty. Now that we have an 
My family uses essential oils, so we have these little 
for mixing oils up. I used them to suck up water/paint mixture from the bottle to drop on a wooden sign. The results were stunning and mesmerizing to watch a fluid art abstract piece come to life. The best part, this was a practically free project. As our studio has been asked to come into our local schools to complete art projects, we try to come up with amazing projects for not a lot of cost. This was the perfect project for just that. Watch how this project came to life through a group of 5th-grade students and then can follow the steps and create your own.
In the classroom, I stapled on a pipe-cleaner and twisted it up to allow the students to fill it with beads. This added a nice fun texture and hanger to make our wood pieces into hangable signs. You don’t have to do this step to your pieces, but I am a sucker for several textures in my projects.
This project is all about the process. You can’t totally control what your piece will end up looking like, which takes some of the stress of it being “perfect” away. I encouraged the students I was working with to do small drops at a time. Some of the bottles may be more watered down than others. By starting with small drops you can watch as colors blend together on their own to make new colors.
Another technique is you can slightly tilt these signs or even stand them up to watch as the paint colors blend and mix to make a stunning abstract piece!
I don’t think you can ruin this project. Often students thought they were done and then they would add one more color. At this point, it is usually when it became more stunning. As the signs dried, some of the paint colors would shift and sort out a little. So fun!
We went back and sprayed a 
on top of our signs, once they were dry. I use a gloss spray that adds a shine and helps them to look finished and more professional. We talked about how you could use this abstract painted piece as the backdrop to then paint a message on top. Maybe to say a phrase or inspirational word like “courage”.
I love how no matter how many times you do this project, no two signs will ever be the same. Depending on the colors you use and how your paint swirls and mixes together…each piece will be unique. This was such an inexpensive project to implement for a 5th-grade class. They had a blast.
What do you think? Will you start saving your paint bottles? I think these finished pieces make a great gift for a family member. Christmas is coming. You can create some masterpieces with your kids for all those proud grandparents.