Valentine craftiness

Thought I'd share a little project I finished up today.  My hope is that one day, many, many years from now, I will have lots of fun home made decorations to bring out at each holiday.  No time like the present to begin.

I found some old discarded wood this week and gathered it up because it was worn and had great texture.

I took it home and slapped on a few coats of paint that I had left over from other projects.  First a layer of white and then a layer of bright red.

Next, I printed a few Valentine type phrases that I found on the internet and taped the paper to my wood.  You'll notice that nothing about this project was measured or precise and that my words are a little off center and crooked.  No matter; I like it that way.

Okay, now it's a little hard to see in this shot, but I traced over the outline of the letters with a pencil (pressing down firmly) and it left an indentation in the wood that was easy to see in the right light.

 
Now I was ready to pull the paper off and paint in the letters.

I totally cheated with a paint pen on the skinny ones.  It would have made me nuts to try that with a paint brush.

All done, but a little too 'shiny and new' for my taste.

So I dug up some sand paper and went to town.  I distressed the whole board, but went heavier on the edges that the words.

Here are the two little signs I finished up today.  I love how they came out.

Here's one hung on my porch door with a little floral wire.  Hopefully I'll find a better way to hang it when I have time to look through my ribbons and such, but for now, I feel good about the fact that its 'done enough' to go ahead and hang.
Happy Valentine's Day y'all!