DIY: Valentine's X&O Door Hanger

The weekend is over and we had a very productive one at the house.  Joe cleaned out the garage yesterday and reorganized everything.  So now I have a lovely pile (pile meaning about 1/8th of the garage) that I need to go through and decide if we are going to keep things or donate them.  This includes the 5 boxes not previously opened since the move from Dallas.  I told myself I'd do one box a day this week until I'm done.  This sounds doable - let's see how well I execute.

I also worked on cleaning out my closet which has been much harder than I thought.  It's strange how emotionally attached I am to some of my clothes.  It was pretty easy going through the work clothes and deciding which of those I'm going to get rid of.  But this simplifying is definitely a process.  Everyday I look over the closet and find something else I'm willing to part with, but it really is hard.  Am I really going to wear the shirt I wore when Joe and I got engaged ever again?  Probably not, but I just can't let it go yet. 

To help, I did the thing where you turn all of the hangers the wrong way and each time you wear something you hang the hanger the correct way so that you can better see what you actually wear in your closet.  So far it's not too surprising what I have and haven't worn.  May 1st is the date I've set in my head to get rid of the winter clothes I haven't worn, but I have a feeling I'll be able to cut the cord before then.

As for my other resolutions, I've done 3 workouts and lost almost 2 lbs. last week - Yay Me!  I'm also back to list making to help keep tabs on things to do around the house and my multiple projects and I will say it's helping.  Having to see an actual physical LIST and I do mean a LIST of the ongoing projects I have is humbling and I'm honestly embarassed to show the list to you, my readers.  So I'm not going to until I'm able to mark some things off of it.  As a result of the list, you will probably see an uptick in the amount of postings here because I'm finally knocking a lot of half-complete projects out.

That does not include today's.  Today's was something I saw on Pinterest on Saturday and immediately had an idea how to knock it off and make it work better for my front door.  So without further adieu......my Valentine's X&O Door Hanger project.

I just ran over to Joann and picked up "X" and "O" cardboard letters and grabbed some red and pink paint.  It took about four layers of paint on each letter to get good coverage.  That cardboard is absorbant! 

After painting, I hit each up letter with 2 coats of polyurethane.  Make sure to apply the polyurethane LIBERALLY.  If you don't, you'll be able to see the brushstrokes.  Make sure you let the poly dry between applying the layers (if additonal layers are needed).  

Here is the polyurethane I used.  I have also used this exact brand for furniture I've done.  It's water based so it doesn't have too much of a smell to it and it's very easy to clean out of brushes.  Use at least an inch wide sized brush or larger to help get even coats.  I thought it would be best to use the poly to help protect them since they are going to be outside for the next month. Also, I used the Satin version instead of the more shiny ones. 

After poly'ing I just took some super glue and glued the letters on top of one another.  About 2 seconds after doing this I thought that maybe doing Command adhesive might be better and if the glue doesn't hold, I will switch to that. 

To add the ribbon I simply took some leftovers from the Turkey shirt project and used my regular ole Swingline stapler to attach it.  

Here is the final product! 

This project cost me less than $10 and less than a day to do!  Hope you try it, and send me your ideas too!