Lovely lil sign

One night my sister! Jackie, and I went crazy with the crafts. Over two nights we each did three crafts. We're talking more than an hour crafts, that's serious craft time. I loved every minute of it and what came of it.

Spending time with my sister is one of my favorite things to do but crafting while doing it is a double bonus. Now that it's finally close to valentines day...how is it only in eleven days?! I can finally share with you some of the crafts we did.

I love love. I also love cute inexpensive DIY crafts. And I love to paint. I love that this little sign is all that and more. It has so much potential in this world. Can't you see it on a bookshelf? Or a desk? Or a mantel? Or shelf in the living room? On the living room end table...seriously stop me I'll name every surface for this lovely sign to rest.

Isn't it just so adorable? I found it at Joann's on an end cap and it was marked down from $5.99 to $4.99 then 50% off? WHAT WHAT! Cue Cupid coming in on his wings, I was in L-O-V-E.

It didn't always start off this charming...

It's a very thin wood material, like most of the wooden crafts at Joann's and Michaels, but I didn't care. I didn't have a plan for this little nicknack, which is very unlike me. I decided to just paint it all white with acrylic paint and a craft brush in hopes that a crisp white surface would give me an idea.

From there I had it! I was going to paint the LOVE portion red and use the crackle medium acrylic paint over it. I apologize for not taking a picture of this step, I was just so excited. All you do to create the crackle effect is paint the surface your color you want your cracks to be, then after that dried you paint the crackle paint over top. This paint is very soupy and almost looks like snot, you think I'm kidding but I'm not it's the best comparison I could make. Wherever you paint the crackle paint is where it will crackle. You let that dry, then paint over everything your final color, once that dries the cracks will form and you will have a rustic crackling sign. It took about an hour for the crackle paint to dry before you could put the final paint layer on.

Then, once it was all done, I left the base white, I decided it needed something. So I turned to washi tape. This is a recent obsession of mine. There are so many cute patterns and you can get a roll for under $2 and it will last you for a long time. Trust me, I did a whole Disney scrapbook with a roll and still have some left. 

Again, I didn't take a picture of this step, sorry! Eek! But I chose the red hearts, I just laid the pieces of tape down onto the base to cover it and clipped around the edges so it was all the same length.

And now it lives on my end table! I love easy crafts like this, and seasonal crafts!