Make a Wood Heart From Scrap Wood

So first thing is to grab your scrap wood. This was barn wood but pallet wood looks similar. I am NOT artistic so I just eyeballed/cut the distance around the heart cereal bowl of a Cheerios box. You will then want to tape it on your wood. (note taping is my first ERROR)

Next I 'thought' it would be good to connect the scrap wood with a small piece of wood. Again, these steps are for your enjoyment.

Flip the wood over, put wood glue on your connecting piece, and attach to the wood. Flipping over is 'important' because generally you prefer one side of the wood over the other and do not want the 'good' side with the connector.

Before flipping over, secure it by using a nail gun. CHECK your nail sizes ahead of time. I ASSUMED I had the short nails in it, 1.25 inches and instead it had 2.5 inches nails. Guess who nailed the wood piece ON the wood bench? This is where the project went downhill FAST.

Flip the wood back over, use a jig saw and cut around the Cheerio heart. I got one side alright looking. Then EVERYTHING went wrong when I tried the other side. I gave up!!! I think the boards would need to be secured better and instead of trying to cut around the Cheerios board you would instead use a marker and draw on the board. The paper moved around. I tried clamps to hold the paper in place and keep the different pieced together but the jigsaw still kept jamming up. Had this worked, I probably would had spent a lot of time with a sander trying to get it matched up.

Since I had SO many frustrations, I found a scrap board that was BIG enough so was ONLY one piece was used. I figured out my (one of...) problems from previous steps so used a marker. I did not like how the heart at the top looked so I hand drew it a little different.

Use the jigsaw and cut around the border. Take a palm sanding block over the edges. One side of the heart was more 'straight' then round so it looked better on its side then up and down.

Next I wanted it personalize so I got out my wood burning set. You are supposed to trace it first. However, I wanted a rustic, carved on a tree look. So I eye balled it. Did I tell you I did this project Christmas Eve???? So I was a tad impatient.

It looks 'rough'. Remember I said it is the thought that counts. Plus this was strictly for our dresser. I did glue a small piece of wood on the bottom and used the nail gun to secure. This made for a more secured base. Originally I wanted C + R and next row 2009. However, I realized that C was too far on the left so instead I spelled out our names. I have only used the wood burning tool once or twice so I really should had trace out placement of the letters first....