Valentine Puzzle Heart Decor

A few years ago, a friend shared the cutest Valentine’s Puzzle Heart Decor project. I remember the vibrant colors and have been meaning to give this a try. No time like the present for an easy Valentine’s Day craft! What better way to reuse a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces! I feel so environmentally conscious AND I get to make a sweet holiday craft. Let’s make an easy Valentine Heart from a puzzle!

Grab a puzzle from the closet, the thrift store, the dollar store or a yard sale. This is a great way to use those old puzzles that are missing some critical pieces. Repurpose!

Did some one say REPUPOSE??? That’s right! It’s THRIFT STORE DECOR TEAM Wednesday so it’s time for some thrifty repurposing projects! Remember to check all of the team projects at the end of this post.

Here is my inspiration photo from Pinterest:

I needed to make a cardboard heart shaped base on which to glue my puzzle pieces. But I decided to prime the puzzle pieces first so the paint could dry while I was creating my heart base.

Spray Paint of Choice

I grabbed a variety of spray paint in Valentine’s colors from my garage. I suggest using at least 3 different colors to create depth and interest. I always recommend using colors in shades of 3. That third color really adds dimension to any project. I used pink, red, and white. And while any spray paint will do, I recommend Rustoleum 2X with primer. You will need less coats (most likely just one) as the coverage is phenomenal.

Separate your puzzle pieces into 3 piles. Start with your first pile and spread the pieces flat on a large surface. Remember to protect your surface from overspray. I often use a large piece of cardboard that I keep in the garage for projects just like this. But this time, I used a pizza box, a shoe box and some other cardboard that was in our recycle bin.

As I said, my spray paint of choice is Rustoleum 2X paint with primer. It is my life’s goal to have a can in every imaginable color. If you don’t use a paint with primer included, you should first hit your pieces with a light coat of primer. This will reduce the number of coats of color required to cover the puzzle pattern. This is especially important if you are using white spray paint to cover a commonly used water or bright colored floral pattern that seem to be the preferred subjects of puzzle creators.

Apply several light coats of spray paint allowing the pieces to thoroughly dry between coats. The force of the spray paint was quite strong to I had to apply the spray paint with short quick spraying motion to prevent the puzzle pieces from being propelled around the room. This short tapping motion was successful and probably prevented me from excessive overspray and puddling of the paint. I was able to cover the original puzzle patterns with two coats of spray paint. Repeat for the remaining groups of puzzle piles. Spray lightly, allow to dry, repeat until you can’t see the pattern beneath the layers of spray paint.

Create a Heart Base

While the paint was drying, I moved on to create my heart base. I used a piece of cardboard from our recycle bin. Just draw a heart and cut it out. I folded my cardboard in half and just cut out the half heart shape. This ensured my heart was symmetrical. I have never been able to draw a totally symmetrical heart. One side is always fat and one side is always tall. No lop-sided hearts for this project. I followed the outer line of the heart to remove the smaller heart from the center. so I was left with about a 2″ base for my puzzle pieces. If you don’t have cardboard in your recycle bin, you can use cardboard from a cereal box or even an old gift box. And if you are a planner, you can buy always buy a heart form from the dollar store or craft store.

I used the cardboard side without the design as the base for my heart.

Start Layering

Grab the Elmer’s glue and get started randomly gluing your puzzle pieces to the heart. There really is no hard fast rule. Just dab some glue on the back of your puzzle piece and plop it onto the heart.

Continue all around the heart until you have one solid layer. Then start your second layer on top of the first still alternating colors. Keep adding alternating colored puzzle pieces until you have filled the heart shape.

I used 3 layers but you can keep going or stop at two. Continue until your heart is sturdy and you are happy with the appearance.

Aren’t the colors magnificent? This would be a fun project for a St. Patrick’s Day shamrock shape too!

TIP: Here is where you can learn from my mistakes. You should spray paint your cardboard heart form with one of your selected spray paint colors. I didn’t and you can see the cardboard base if you look closely at my heart. So remember this step!

You can glue a piece of ribbon to the back of the heart and hang it on an interior door. I suppose you could use it outside but my front door gets direct Alabama sun all day so it would fry and fade. You could coat it with some Polycrylic to protect it from the direct sun but you would also need a stronger glue than Elmer’s. Use an exterior glue or maybe liquid nails. So indoor use is my choice.

She looks fabulous against the white door with or without a ribbon.

And she looks pretty cute just hanging out with this primitive snowman on the mantle.

I’d like to make some smaller versions to use as ornaments on my flocked tree as those colors would be incredible against the flocking.

This was an easy project and would be fun with kids. Speaking of which, I had a little buddy crafting with me. This was an easy project for my grandson to complete. He made a heart for his sweet mom. I forgot to snap a photo. But we did continue our crafty Saturday morning by making this Valentine’s house from a left over Gingerbread house kit from Christmas.