The rule for Valentine's Day this year was "no spending money on gifts for each other". She didn't say I couldn't make a gift with things I already had laying around the house...... challenge accepted, loophole exploited. This is a quick little piece I made using materials I had in the garage. Some 1/2" birch plywood, some old pallets, paint, stain, and poly.
I started by breaking down the old pallets, saving the best pieces. I then cut all of the pieces in half length-wise to create smaller strips. I laid out the strips to see how many I would need to give me a roughly 12" x 12" square block. I ended up going with 14"H x 16"W for the entire piece. I proceeded to map out the heart on a few pieces of graph paper, which I had to tape together in order to get a large enough surface for the shape. After a few measurements, I had my heart template. I centered the heart on a piece of 1/2" birch plywood, leaving about 1" on each side of the heart. I used my jigsaw to cut out the shape and then sanded the whole piece smooth. I then cut all of the pallet strips to the proper length and painted 2 of them teal (her favorite color). I arranged all of the strips so that the nail heads (from the original pallets) were in the center of the heart in a vertical line. I then glued and clamped them all together. While the glue was drying I stained the front face of the birch plywood with "Summer Oak". Once everything was dry I attached the plywood over top of the strips using 1" screws, making sure everything was square. Finally, I applied a few coats of poly to the entire piece to give it a nice finish.
The rule for Valentine's Day this year was "no spending money on gifts for each other". She didn't say I couldn't make a gift with things I already had laying around the house...... challenge accepted, loophole exploited. This is a quick little piece I made using materials I had in the garage. Some 1/2" birch plywood, some old pallets, paint, stain, and poly. I started by breaking down the old pallets, saving the best pieces. I then cut all of the pieces in half length-wise to create smaller strips. I laid out the strips to see how many I would need to give me a roughly 12" x 12" square block. I ended up going with 14"H x 16"W for the entire piece. I proceeded to map out the heart on a few pieces of graph paper, which I had to tape together in order to get a large enough surface for the shape. After a few measurements, I had my heart template. I centered the heart on a piece of 1/2" birch plywood, leaving about 1" on each side of the heart. I used my jigsaw to cut out the shape and then sanded the whole piece smooth. I then cut all of the pallet strips to the proper length and painted 2 of them teal (her favorite color). I arranged all of the strips so that the nail heads (from the original pallets) were in the center of the heart in a vertical line. I then glued and clamped them all together. While the glue was drying I stained the front face of the birch plywood with "Summer Oak". Once everything was dry I attached the plywood over top of the strips using 1" screws, making sure everything was square. Finally, I applied a few coats of poly to the entire piece to give it a nice finish.
