I’ll let you into a little secret – I never really decorated for Valentine before, but I’m loving it! This year seemed the perfect excuse to add some Love and Valentine Fun. Want to share in with the fun, but not spend a lot of money? I get it! This little “Key to my Heart” shelf sitter is the perfect project for your home (Valentine or no Valentine!!)
Because I made this one on video there are no “step by step” photos, but I hope it’s pretty self explanatory. If you do want to watch how I made it, you can check out the video on Facebook here.
What you need
- A piece of scrapwood (or a picture frame if you don’t have any wood to hand)
- Some acrylic paint in a colour of your choice
- A piece of material – I used a burlap type of material which I bought in Hobbycraft here.
- A little craft heart – (mine was 11 cm in diameter so the one on the link is slightly smaller)
- An old book or sheet music
- Mod Podge
- Some brushes for painting and Mod Podging
- Hot glue
- A key – I used these cute ornamental keys
- Some ribbon to make a messy bow
here’s how to make your own shelf sitter
Start with sanding down any rough edges on your wood. Wipe clean and add a layer of acrylic paint. I painted mine red but you can go for any colour. And of course you can leave it neutral, you don’t HAVE to paint it! Leave to dry.
Once it’s dried I took a bit of sandpaper and sand off the edges to give it a distressed look. This step is completely optional, but I like the way it gives it an aged look.
Blank canvas for your shelf sitter
To add another dimension I decided to use some burlap Hessian material I still had to hand.
Cut some of your material to size. I cut mine slightly smaller than the piece of wood to have the colour show on the sides. I pulled away some of the strands of the material to add some extra interest. Hot glue this onto the piece of wood. You’ve now got your base to work with.
I used a similar technique on a picture frame I made from a piece of scrapwood here. Go and check it out – I think you’ll love it!
adding the detail
Next I used a small heart from an old coat rack. We hadn’t used it for aaaages and was in the cupboard gathering dust. I took one of them off and pulled off the small little heart. If you don’t have these to hand, some of your local hobby shops are bound to have them. Like this one here (which is 10 cm so slightly smaller than the one I used)
This damaged it slightly but I”m going to cover it so I’m not too worried.
You’ve seen me use design pads with loads of different types of paper before which are idea for these type of projects. BUT, if you haven’t got any scrapbook paper, you don’t need to go and buy any. Do you have any old books or music sheets lying around? They are the PERFECT (and super cheap!) option for decoupage projects. I used an old music sheet, traced the little heart and cut out the heart shape. Mod Podge the paper straight onto your craft heart.
Next, hot glue the heart onto the piece of wood/material.
the key to my heart
I bought a bag of these keys for some signs I made over Christmas (did you know they are PERFECT as Santa’s secret key??), but still had a load left over. They are gorgeous ornamental keys, but of course you can old an old house key too. Hot glue a key onto the heart. Alternatively you can attach it with a piece of string.
It’s looking pretty cute already, but you know by now that I LOVE to finish off my projects with a bow. I find it’s the perfect way to fill any gaps and bring back the colours you’ve used in your project by picking out the same colour ribbon.
Hot glue your bow into position and your shelf sitter is all done!!
I’m so pleased with how this has turned out and think it’s ideal if you’ve got a neutral home too as you can adjust the colours for more muted ones.
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