Valentine's Day Heart Shelf Sitter Decoration: High-End for Less!

Hello friends! It’s again time for Thrift with Us, where I join up with Terrie of Decorate and More with Tip and Tammy of Patina and Paint to bring you some upcycled decor pieces that we’ve made from thrifted items. I found some wood heart topiary-type items that just weren’t my style, but I knew I could use the hearts for something. I was right, and I combined a wood heart with a wood bead wreath from Dollar Tree to create a Valentine’s Day shelf sitter decoration that I absolutely love!

Wood bead heart shelf sitter featured image.

If you would like to see the full video tutorial for this Valentine’s Day heart decoration that’s great as a shelf sitter, you can check it out here on Facebook. Every Wednesday Tammy, Terrie, and I join vloggers Teresa of Through a Vintage Door and Corine of Junk to Gems aka Curly Willow Acres to bring you a new DIY video tutorial. We have Craft with Us, Decorate with Us, Thrift with Us, and so much more! Be sure to head over to Facebook using the link at the top of the page to follow me so that you don’t miss out on these great ideas!

Now, on to the Valentine’s Day heart shelf sitter decoration.

Valentine’s Day Wood Bead Heart Decoration Supplies:

wood bead wreath from Dollar Tree
wood heart- You can get these from DT, Walmart (usually), Amazon, or any hobby store.
wood blocks to use as the base- DT or any other store I listed.
Beacon Quick Grip
hot glue gun & glue
ribbon
pipe cleaner or floral wire
white paint

Supplies for the Valentine's Day wood bead heart shelf sitter decoration: wood bead wreath, wood hearts, wood blocks, and other items I didn't end up using. — I planned to cover the heart with the fabric shown & to make a fabric bow with it, but I ended up not using the wood sticks from the topiaries, the fabric or the Mod Podge.

Three wood heart topiary-like decorations; wood hearts with brown, khaki, dark gray, and white painted horizontal stripes with family, faith, and blessed written on each one. Each heart is on a wood stick that is inserted into the bottom of it and into the top of a wood base. — I planned to cover the heart with the fabric shown & to make a fabric bow with it, but I ended up not using the wood sticks from the topiaries, the fabric or the Mod Podge.

Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the Dollar Tree Affiliate Program, affiliate programs that allow me to link to the products that you can use to make this project quickly and easily. If you purchase any of these products I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! That commission helps me continue to bring these great decor DIYs, free printables, and all of the other goodies on this site to you. Thanks so much for your support!

Prep the Wood & the Hearts

First, I thought I could just paint over the design on the hearts, but that didn’t work. So, I sanded off the white paint that I added as well as the black stain on the base from the hearts as well as the design that was on the wood hearts. That left simple white wood that was underneath which was perfect. I didn’t get a photo of me sanding, but you can see the results in the photos and me doing so in the video.)

I flipped the wood block over so that the hole where the stick went was on the bottom. That left wood that matched my wood bead wreath. There was a bit of the black left that I needed to cover, so I painted the edges white. When it dried, I distressed them by sanding.

Painting the edge of the wood block white.

Sanding the wood base from the heart topiary after removing the initial black paint. The block has the natural wood on the top and has been painted white on the edges, and I am sanding parts of the white paint to distress it and give it a farmhouse look.

Next, I bent the wood bead wreath into a heart shape. I made the metal attaching each side of the wreath into the dip at the top of my Valentine’s Day heart decoration.

Bending a round wood bead wreath into a heart shape to create a Valentine's Day shelf sitter decoration.

Assemble the Valentine’s Day Heart Shelf Sitter Decoration

I love using Quick Grip to glue projects that need to hold well and hold quickly. I’m not a fan of E6000 as it never seems to work for me! You can get Quick Grip here on Amazon, Walmart, or Hobby Lobby.

To create a base for the Valentine’s Day heart decoration, I glued two of the thrifted heart topiary wood bases together. You can use a wood block from Dollar Tree to create the same look.

I added Quick Grip to the edge of one of the blocks, then hot glue to the edge of the another. Next, I pressed them together to form one longer base.

Adding Quick Grip to the edge of a wood block to create the base of the shelf sitter.

Adding hot glue to a wood block after Quick Grip to create the base of the Valentine's shelf sitter.

There are several ways different directions you can glue the wood bead heart to the base. I chose to have it angled to the right, not straight up and down. So, I added Quick Grip to the 3 wood beads to the right of the bottom point then squeezed hot glue on top of that to help the wood adhere faster. I placed a ball of twine under the right side of the Valentine’s Day heart decoration then some bottles of paint to the front and back while I worked just to hold it in case.

Adding Quick Grip to the bottom 3 beads of the wood bead heart to place it on the base of the Valentine's Day decoration.

Pressing the wood bead heart that has glue on 3 of the beads, onto 2 wood blocks as a base to hold up the shelf sitter decoration.

Once the wood bead heart was on the Valentine’s shelf sitter base, I added the wood heart decoration. I angled it a little to the left, so I put Quick Grip and hot on the bottom point and a little bit on the right side. I also added glue to the bottom 4 wood beads on the left side of the heart.

Adding Quick Grip to the bottom of a white wood heart to place in front of the wood bead heart glued to the base of the Valentine's Day shelf sitter decoration.

Adding Quick Grip to the bottom 3 beads of the wood bead heart to attach the wood heart to it.

Then I placed the wood heart on the front of the Valentine’s Day decoration. You can’t see how I angled it more to the right in this photo, but you will see it in the later photos.

Pressing a white wood heart onto a wood bead wreath bent into a heart shape and attached to the wood base to hold up the shelf sitter decoration.

Embellish the Shelf Sitter

It’s now time to embellish the Valentine’s Day heart shelf sitter decoration. I made two bows, one for the top and one for the base.

Using a 2.5″ khaki linen ribbon I made a simple bow that is about 4″ wide once finished. I wish I had a thinner ribbon that matched this one, but I didn’t, so I made it work. Once I secured the center of it with a pipe cleaner, I covered it up with a khaki and white striped twine.

A small two-loop bow without tails with khaki and white twine wrapped around the pipe cleaner that secures the bow.

This is the bow that I placed on the base of the Valentine’s Day decoration, where the wood heart meets the base, using hot glue.

Adding hot glue to the back of the 2-loop bow to glue on the base of the Valentine's Day heart shelf sitter decoration.

Wood bead heart attached to a wood base with a wood heart attached to the left side of the wood bead heart and the base and a khaki linen bow glued over the part where the wood heart and the base meet.

For the top bow, I made a simple 2-loop bow with short tails. Then I placed a small piece of pipe cleaner on the back to attach the bow to the metal clasps that hook the two sides of the wood bead wreath together.

Making a simple two-loop bow with khaki linen ribbon to place at the top of the Valentine's Day wood bead heart shelf sitter decoration.

Adding a small piece of pipe cleaner to the back of a bow to use to attach it to the heart shelf sitter decoration.

I only used hot glue and pipe cleaners to attach the bows so that I can change up the Valentine’s Day heart decoration every year. You could change this up in so many ways; Mod Podge fabric or scrapbook paper on the wood heart, paint the heart, use stencils on it, use fabric to make scrap bows at the top and bottom, use Dollar Tree Valentine’s Day scarves as bows- I could go on and on!

For now, my Valentine’s Day heart decoration is ready to display.

Completed Valentine’s Day Heart Shelf Sitter Decoration

I really love how this piece turned out! What do you think?!

Valentine's Day heart decoration with a wood bead heart on a wood base with a white wood heart attached to the bottom left side and a khaki bow glued to the conjunction of the heart and the base and a 2-loop bow with tails attached to the dip in the wood bead heart.

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Wood bead heart shelf sitter Pinterest image.

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