Distressed Puzzle Wall Art – Love is all you need!

When I saw A Wandaful Thing’s  monthly challenge to use puzzle pieces for a craft, I knew I wanted to take part in it! We love puzzles around here and this would be fun project! I obviously could not invade Mi’s stash of puzzles so I headed to the dollar store to pick up some puzzle pieces. It was meant to be when I found the heart shaped puzzle! I was obviously meant to make a love puzzle wall art for Valentine’s Day. Two birds- one stone! I was obviously meant to make it! 

One of my favorite songs is the Beetles song – All you need is love…. love is all you need… I was going for what you need to fix a broken heart… so “Love is all you need…”

***This post contains affiliate or referral links. It is a way for this site to earn advertising fees by advertising or linking to certain products and/or services. Please read my full disclosure here ***

Materials needed for the puzzle wall art –

• Heart shaped puzzle
• Mod podge 
• 1/4″ birch plywood
• Red stain (I used Minwax tintable stain in spice)
• Blue paint (I used Seaside Manor by Clark+Kensington)
• White paint (I used Polar White by Valspar)
• Sander. This corner sander is my favorite
• Red metallic acrylic paint
• Silver acrylic paint

How to make the puzzle wall art –

Step 1 – Assemble the puzzle and give it a coat of mod podge on top to hold the puzzle together. 

Step 2 – Paint the back of the puzzle with red acrylic paint. Once dry, trace the puzzle edges with silver craft paint. 

Step 3 – On the 1/4″ plywood – add multiple layers of stain and paint. I started with the stain, followed by blue paint which was followed by white paint. 

Step 4 – Give the edges a light sanding all around to reveal all the various layers of paint. I loved how it turned out… The white and blue and a hint of red on the edges.

Step 5 – Print out the lettering and finalize the placement. I used LaserMetal Font (available free) in 400pt in outline mode.

Step 6 – Trace the letters onto the board. Usually, I just go over the letters with a ball point pen, it works like a charm on softer wood like pine etc, but it was not working here because of the hard plywood. Here is the trick I used –

How to trace onto hardboard –

Rub a pencil on the backside of the page. Use a pencil to trace over the front. The pencil on the back leaves an imprint on the hardboard! That’s it! 

Step 7 – Fill in the traced letters with metallic red craft paint and give it a pass with the sander to create a worn look.

Step 8 – Glue the heart puzzle to the board using hot glue and our love puzzle sign is ready! 

I love how  the puzzle gives it a 3- dimensional look with the distressed sign in the background. It is the perfect sign to go over a mantle or in a master bedroom! 

How do you like my love puzzle wall art?

I made another fun distressed wall art for my master bedroom recently too.