Pallet Heart Wall Decor DIY for Valentine’s Day

Turn a pallet heart into a beautiful shabby chic piece of wall art.  Learn how to create a paint wash to make this mixed media piece.

I created this romantic, vintage inspired piece of heart wall art for DecoArt last year.  I love the way it turned out!  I created a color wash to stain the wood without hiding the beautiful pallet grain underneath.  Keep reading to learn how easy it is to achieve this effect, and how simple this project is to make!

Supplies Used

• Americana Multi-Surface Acrylics — Lipstick , Dark Scarlet, and Red Barn
• Elegant Finish — Renaissance Brown and  Luminous Gold
• Americana Mediums — Glazing Medium
• Wood Pallet Heart
• Corrugated Cardstock
• Dictionary Pages
• Silk Flower
• Glue Gun

Create a color wash by mixing the following:  1 part Glazing Medium, 1 part water, 1/2 part paint color.  (ie. 1 tbsp glazing medium, 1 tbsp water, 1/2 tbsp Red Barn Paint).  I created a color wash for each of the three red paints used.

Note:  I prefer to use the Glazing Medium when making a color wash because when you just use water to dilute the paint, sometimes the color and water separate, and you get streaks of color on the finished project. The glazing medium helps to truly dilute the color.

Brush different sections of the pallet heart with various red color washes.  The color variation is very subtle but creates a pretty finished product that doesn’t look flat.

Use the left over color wash to paint a dictionary page on the front and the back.

Use a foam sponge to wipe Renaissance Brown Glaze into the spaces in the wood.  This gives it a little more depth and variation.

Die cut leaves from white corrugated craft cardboard.  Paint the leaves with Luminous Gold Glaze.

Die cut and flower and petals from the dictionary pages.  Brush Luminous Gold Glaze over the cut pieces.

Use the wood end of a paintbrush to curl and form the petals and the paper flower.

Place a dab of hot glue on a non-stick craft mat.  Quickly add the cut petals to the hot glue to form the smaller flowers. Embellish the center with an adhesive pearl embellishment.

Hot glue the gold leaves onto the wood heart.  Glue the silk flower and the paper flowers onto the heart.

I finished off the project by hot gluing a strip of pretty trim from Decorative Trimmings onto the back.  I think the lace trim hanger gives it a nice finishing touch and helps maintain the shabby chic feel I was going for.  I really love my new piece of wall art, and I think it well stay up long past Valentine’s Day!