Scrap wood Heart

The other day when I finished making chalkboard gifts for my son's teachers for Valentine's day ,  I had a small pile of scrap 1 by 2's leftover.  The way  they were piled on the floor kind of looked like a heart so I went with it.  I only had to make a few cuts since most of the pieces were already at 45 degree angles.

I have scrap wood everywhere and I mean that literally.  I never throw it out or burn it in the wood stove because you never know when you'll need that one extra piece of wood.

As you can see the pieces don't match because I just picked through a box of scrap wood for the end pieces.  I think one of the pieces is from stakes that I use in my garden for young trees.  You can use 1 by 3's or 4's depending on the look and size that you want.

I painted each piece of wood a different color with the help of my son.  I attached each piece of wood together with my brad nailer and wood glue.  I started  with the 2 middle pieces and worked my way out on each side. Let the glue dry overnight.

I used my dremel and roughed up the edges of each piece. You can do this step before you attach them together .  Roughing it up was an after thought.  I also added little piece on the arrow and bottom of heart so it would stand on it's own.

I brushed some stain on it to tone down the bright colors.  I used Varathane stain color is KONA which is pretty close to Minwax color Expresso which is now my favorite stain color after Ebony.  If you haven't used Varathane stain yet I think it's great because it works really fast and dries pretty quick too.

TIPS & TRICKS:
Remember when you are using stain to always sand your wood and precondition it for a professional looking finish.  If you just bring home wood from the lumber yard without sanding it , even if it looks smooth , then the stain is most likely just going to rub off and you won't achieve the color and finish that you want.