Valentine's Day Wreath with Painted Conversation Hearts

Thank goodness January is finally over! It's always been my least favorite month, mainly because our house looks so empty and bare after taking down our Christmas decorations.

But now that it's February, I felt it was time to finally hang up the Valentine's Day wreath I finished last week!

 

In elementary school, Sweethearts Conversation Hearts were always my favorite Valentine's Day candy. Who didn't love finding the hearts with the best sayings stamped on them? So with my new-found love for wreaths, I decided I needed to make a Valentine's Day one with conversation hearts.

I'd seen several wreaths on various blogs made out of the actual conversation hearts candies, but I was doubtful that something like that would last very long. Inside, sure, but I wanted a wreath for my front door, which is exposed to the elements. I didn't want the candy getting wet and running down my door!

So instead, at Michaels Crafts, I found these bags of little wooden hearts to use. Combined with some acrylic paint, ribbon, a piece of acrylic and some other supplies, I had all I needed to create my wreath.

I wanted to use acrylic as the backing to my wreath since it's clear, so my little conversation hearts would be more clearly defined against our black colored front door. In case you're curious, I got the 16 inch acrylic circle from Tap Plastics, for $13.

Oh, and if you've never worked with acrylic before, don't be surprised when you receive it and it's blue colored. Back when my husband and I were making the LED luminary escort cards for our wedding, I'd thought they had given us the wrong acrylic. But no, it comes with blue protective coating, which you just have to peel off to reveal the clear plastic.

Once I had my supplies gathered, I laid my hearts out in a wreath shape, to figure out exactly how many I needed of each size.

Then it was time for lots of painting. This was a fun project, because I hadn't had the opportunity to paint anything for a while. And the acrylic paint on the wood made for the perfect matte finish, to mimic the look of the chalky conversation hearts candy.

Once all of my hearts were dry, I laid them on top of the acrylic circle again, double checking my spacing, and then just glued them to the acrylic with hot glue.

Don't forget to glue your hanging ribbon under the hearts, but on top of the acrylic, unless you want to deal with trying to put a hole through the acrylic itself (trust me, you probably don't).

Once all of your circles of wooden hearts are glued to the acrylic, add some felt pads to the back side of the acrylic, to cushion it when opening and closing your door. Then just tie your ribbon into a bow or knot, and your conversations heart wreath is done!

Oh, and you might have noticed in the background of my photos above a larger wooden heart, with LOVE stenciled on it. Well...originally I'd planned to add that larger heart to the wreath, but in the end I decided it wasn't needed.

So instead, I just glued some more ribbon to the LOVE heart, and hung it on the inside handle of our front door.

I made the LOVE stencil myself, by printing out the letters on card stock, and then carefully cutting them out with my x-acto knife.

Then I just used a tiny bit of spray adhesive to hold my stencil to the wooden heart, while I quickly painted two coats of sparkly red paint over the letters, and then removed the card stock stencil before the adhesive had time to dry.

I'm glad I found a use for this larger heart after I decided I didn't like it on the wreath. Now I have a little Valentine's Day flair both on the outside and inside of our front door!

Have you made any Valentine's Day crafts or decorations this year? Did you feel the need to wait until February 1st to display them, or did you put them up as soon as they were done?

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