Valentine’s Trail Sign

Does your Valentine need directions?  I have not been getting very crafty lately but when, Lisa, a reader commented on my Valentine’s Twig Heart Trivet, she mentioned a crafty project that she has made in the past, and there I was, feeling inspired to craft something for Valentine’s Day.  Something to point a Valentine in the right direction!!

I’ve dyed toothpicks with red food coloring when I made the Valentine’s candle wraps, so this time I wanted to go bigger, as in pallet wood slats and perhaps a trail sign with clever Valentine’s Day expressions.  Oh, I think I’m soooo creative, don’t I?   

Valentine’s Day Trail Sign

This Valentine’s Day Trail sign might help or confuse your Valentine, but could it be any cuter?!!

I sent a pic of this to my son while we were Skyping.  He said, “Ma, this is the kind of cheesy thing I see on the web and roll my eyes at…but, yes it’s cute…in a girly kind of way…”

My husband just looked at it and said, “ooohh jeeeeze!”

I started with 3 pallet wood slats

I used a measuring tape and chalk to draw some trail sign arrows on 2 of the slats.

Ken cut these out for me with his table saw, but a hand saw would work too.

I sanded the arrows with my power hand sander.

Next I mixed 1/4 cup hot water, 2 tablespoons vinegar and about 15 drops of red food coloring into a glass jar, and then applied the dye mixture to the wood slats in 2 coats and let the slats dry.

I also painted the 3rd slat with white paint, let that dry, and then ran the power sander over the white paint to get a weathered look.

I laid out the slats onto the painted white piece with a trail sign arrangement in mind.

I made some catchy Valentine-trail sign saying using PicMonkey in the Eraser Dust font.

You can follow these steps to make the wording:

Go to:  PicMoneky

Click:  Design

Click:  Custom

Adjust size to:  2000 x 1400

Resize to:  1001 x 701 

From that point:  start adding text as if you are writing it onto

an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper in the landscape position.  

Save to desktop

Print out as a full page

Tip: since the slats were about 11″ long, I printed my sayings to fit on a standard 8-1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper in the landscape format.  

The top slat was slightly larger, so I made that layout a little bigger.

I cut out the sayings and laid them onto the slats, and then placed carbon paper underneath the paper and traced with a pencil.

I then used a white paint pen to trace over and then fill all the letters in with white paint.  I went over the letters about 3 times, letting the paint dry in between.

I gave all the slats a quick sanding and then adhered them all to the painted white slat with construction adhesive.  2 holes were drilled for wire or twine so that it could be a hanging piece.

The way the wood slats turned pink from dying them with the red food coloring is probably my favorite part.  The campy Valentine sayings just fit so perfectly, I couldn’t resist.

A smaller version could probably be made with wood shims and perhaps some stick-on letters.

You can see more Valentine ideas, here.

Thanks for the inspiration, Lisa!!