Life as a LEO Wife

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Valentine’s Day is in a month, so it’s time to break out all of your love-ly decorations! Do you see what I did there? Ok, I’m not a great comedian, but I did make some beautiful Valentine’s Day tiered-tray decor pieces out of Dollar Tree supplies. I made a tray full of beautiful pieces for about $5 in supplies, and I love them! All you need is a mini Jenga set, some wood, and some ribbon (all from Dollar Tree).

For a Valentine’s Day tiered-tray decor set you need:

• mini Jenga game
• 10″ piece of wood
• wood cube (I used the drawer that came in one of the wood boxes with the drawer ffrom DT.)
• vinyl, stencil and paint, or letter stickers
• 1/4″ ribbon- I used white.
• 1″ to 2.5″ ribbon- I used 2.5″ wired lace and glitter ribbon in vintage blush (a mauve tinted blush pink) and white. I would’ve used a thinner ribbon, but this one will tie the tray in with my other Valentine’s Day decor, like this tabletop decor piece.)
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• E6000 or wood glue
• wood beads or pearls (I saw different sized pearls at Dollar Tree the other day.)
• floral wire or pipe cleaner
• acrylic, chalk, or spray paint
• paint brushes

Prep the Wood

Last week I made this Valentine’s Day tabletop decor piece, and I had a leftover piece of wood about 5″ long. I painted it gray and used it as a riser for my decor set.

Now you’ll need to cut a Jenga piece. This piece will be used to make a wood “couple,” a mini man and woman that will be attached together later. Dollar Tree does sell handsaws, and it’s perfect for small projects like this. You can measure and make a pencil mark at 3/4″ and cut along that line, or you can eye it. You just want to make a “woman” piece that’s shorter than the “man.”

Glue the Game Pieces Together

Open your mini Jenga game and take out 12 blocks. Put some E6000 on the small end of one of the pieces then press a second one to that end. Wipe off any excess glue. If your pieces won’t stick together long enough to dry, you can add a little hot glue which will help the pieces stay together until the E6000 dries. If you have large binder clips, you can place them on the wood to help them stay together while the glue dries.

Once those are together, glue two more together and glue those two to the top of the first two. I’m sorry, but I forgot to get a picture of the pieces glued together before I painted them.

Make three of those pieces with four blocks each (I’ll call these “blocks” from now on). Next glue two end to end and then one of the regular-sized game pieces to the one you cut earlier. Those will be the man and the woman.

Sand the Wood Blocks

I let my glue dry overnight. I would suggest that you do that, but if you’re short on time, I would at least wait two hours. Sand off any excess glue and any rough wood splinters that might be on the blocks. I did have quite a bit of roughness on my wood, which is normal with Dollar Tree wood. At this point you should try to make all of the game pieces even. Some of them are wider and longer than the others (what can we expect for a box full of wood for $1?), but that can be fixed by sanding down any disparities in size.

Paint the Valentine’s Day Tiered-Tray Decor Wood

I used spray paint and acrylic paint for my decor pieces. You can use any paint that you have on hand: acrylic, chalk, or spray paint. I used Rust-oleum Vintage Blush spray paint on two of the blocks that were made up of Jenga pieces, the 10″ piece of wood, and the one and a half Jenga piece. Next, I painted the wood drawer, the 5″ of wood (to use as a riser), and the two game pieces glued together (the man) with gray acrylic paint. Finally, I painted two wood beads with ivory acrylic paint.

Create the Valentine’s Day Tiered-Tray Couple

Glue the Bodies Together

Allow the paint to dry, and if you’re in a time crunch, you can use a blow dryer to shorten dry time. Take the two games pieces that you painted gray and the pink woman (the one and a half piece) and glue them together. Squeeze E6000 along the long side of the pink piece. I wanted my woman to be on the right, so I added the glue to the left side. In the picture I was about put the glue on the longer piece, but I figured out that it would be smarter to put the glue on the shorter piece. Press it to the gray piece. You can use a binder clip to hold them together if needed. Wipe off excess glue.

Glue on the Heads

Put glue on the bottom of one of your ivory wood beads. I used hot glue for this, but E6000 will work as well. Press the bead on top of the gray piece, then repeat the process on the pink one.

Now you’ll have a cute wood couple!

Embellish the Couple

Now it’s time to fancy up your couple. Place hot glue on the back of them at the point that the two wood game pieces are glued together horizontally. Then place the 1/4″ ribbon on the glue, wrap it around the wood, and glue the other end of the ribbon on the back. The ribbon will now hide the seam.

You can decorate the couple in many different ways. I made a tiny bow out of 1/8″ white ribbon with gold edges. You could also add a button, a small heart, beads, foam, etc. I used the bow because it is what I used on my other pieces, so they all coordinate.

Add Words to the Decor Blocks

Create a Design in Cricut Design Space

I used my Cricut to cut words that also coordinate with my tabletop piece I made last week. You can use letter stickers from Dollar Tree or stencils and paint if you don’t have a cutting machine. I’ve also created free printables of the words that you can use if you don’t have any of those things.

I used the font Merlot. It’s part of the Cricut Access subscription, but you can buy the font for $4.99 if you’d like to have it for keeps. The heart with the cross in it is $.99. Here is my design if you’d like to use it.

Cut & Transfer Vinyl Design to the Wood

Follow your normal technique for cutting the designs and use transfer tape to place them on the wood blocks. I used gold vinyl for this. Dollar Tree does have vinyl now that you can use here too. When you add the single words on the three blocks, place it toward the right end of the block. You will be adding embellishments to the left end. On the 10″ piece of wood, you can just center the design. You’ll have “faith,” “hope,” and “love” on the three Jenga blocks, and “the greatest of these is love” on the 10″ piece of wood. Transfer the heart to the wood cube. I actually used the inside of the heart on the other side of the drawer rather than throwing it away in the weeding process.

Free Printables to Add Images to the Valentine’s Day Tiered-Tray Decor

I made a design for you to use on the tabletop Valentine’s Day piece that I shared last week. This week I’m sharing the free printables that you can use on this project that coordinate with that piece. Use this tutorial to transfer the design onto the wood. All you need is a pencil and your printer, no cutting machine!

Make sure to check your print settings so that they print as is and don’t shrink or enlarge to fit. Cut the words and the phrase apart then add them to the wood blocks. You can use acrylic paint in any color to go over the image once its transferred.

Embellish the Valentine’s Day Tiered-tray Decor Wood

Wood Blocks

Now it’s time to add a little flair to your decor pieces. Add a dot of hot glue to the back of one of the wood blocks about 1/4″ from the left end of the block. Place the 1/4″ ribbon around the front, then glue the other end on the back.

Repeat that step, placing another piece of ribbon right up against that one.

Make a small bow from the 1/8″ ribbon. Glue it in the middle of the two white ribbons.

10″ Wood Piece

For the long piece of wood, you will add the 1/4″ ribbon across the top and down the sides. Flip the wood upside down and place some hot glue on the left side. Wrap the ribbon up the left side, over the top, and down the right side. Add another bit of glue on the bottom, right side to secure the ribbon on the block.

Next use your wider ribbon to make a small bow for the top. I used a 2.5″ wired ribbon that is blush glitter with white lace overlay. I would’ve used a smaller ribbon, but this was the ribbon that I have been using on all of my Valentine’s Day decor this year. Place a bit of hot glue on the back of the bow and center it on the wood on top.

I placed it so that I could fluff the bow and have it face forward rather than only straight up.

Wood Drawer

Finally decorate the wood drawer cube. I added my gold vinyl hearts on the cube so that the drawer opening would be on the bottom. If you’re using a drawer with a cut-out, you need to hide it with some ribbon. Add some hot glue to the bottom of the drawer, inside the opening, in the middle, then press the ribbon on to it.

Wrap the ribbon around the top of the wood cube then glue the other end to the opposite inside side of it. The ribbon will now be covering the cut-out. In my case it was a flower.

In order to keep the ribbon from covering the entire top of the cube, and to make it a little cuter, use a pipe cleaner or floral wire to gather it in the center of the top of the box. Slide the wire under the ribbon, then wrap it around the top. It will make a cute little gathering with pleats.

Finally I made a small bow for the top of the box to cover the wire. I used a coordinating 2.5″ wired ribbon that’s the same color as the pink in the lace ribbon and it’s a bit metallic. Glue it to the top of the wood cube covering the wire.

Here’s the finished wood cube.

Now your Valentine’s Day tiered-tray decor set is complete!

You now have six items to add to your Valentine’s Day tiered-tray! I love how they turned out and how they coordinate with my February 14 piece. Here are a few pictures of the pieces before I added them to the tray.

Here are some shots of my Valentine’s Day tiered-tray. I added faux snowballs and icicle pinecones from this tutorial, some faux greenery, and two white bottle brush trees as well.

If you like this post, stick around because there’s a lot more Valentine’s Day and home decor posts on the blog! You may like these posts:

I have some more Valentine’s Day decor tutorials and free printables on the way, so don’t miss those! Enter your email address below and you’ll get an email when I add new printables, tutorials, and link parties.

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