Supplies:

1. Wood base
2. Sandpaper
3. Polyacrylic or other sealers
4. 13-gauge wire in your choice of material. I used copper.
5. Gorilla glue
6. Small clamps
7. Faux flowers and greenery
8. Drill
9. Wire cutters
10. Thin piece of metal. I used copper foil.
11. Cricut maker
12. Cricut engraving tool and housing

Steps:

1. Sand wood base down and make sure it is pretty level. I removed all the bark as well.

2. Drill two holes next to each other, slightly larger than your wire. This is where the base of your heart will go.

3. Apply polyacrylic to the wood base to seal and protect it. Make sure the polyacrylic goes inside the holes to protect them but does not clog or fill them. Set it aside to dry overnight.

4. Shape the wire into two heart shape halves and insert them into your holes to ensure they are the right size and shape. Then cut your wire.

5. If you would like the braded wire style I went with, then put two wire ends together and slowly turn on your drill and allow it to wrap the two pieces of wire together. Cut off the extra unneeded wire and do this again for your second piece of wire.

6. Apply gorilla glue to the ends of your wire and insert them into the two holes in your wood base.

7. Shape your wire pieces as needed. Apply gorilla glue to the center of your heart where the two pieces touch and clamp them together as the glue dries.

8. Arrange greenery and flowers around the base of your heart. Then apply gorilla glue to the flowers and greenery and clamp them in place till the glue dries.

The wood I used for this piece came from the oldest tree in Indiana, which is the state where I grew up. They needed to trim some of the branches off, and my dad was able to get some nice pieces of wood from it to pick from. He also let me use his sander and helped me sand it down. So, it was nice to work on this piece with both my dad and my now husband. This was my favorite thing I made for my wedding.

I also made a small metal plaque and glued it to the back of this piece to remind me where the wood came from. I did not record engraving and adding this metal plaque to the back of this piece. I used my Cricut maker’s engraving tool, and engraved into foil copper, which is a very thin piece of copper. If you have ever engraved into a piece of acrylic, then it is done the same way, but with the thin metal.

Steps:

1. Type the text you would like your metal to say. Then change the font to engrave. I recommend a bubble type font so we can fill it in with a hatch fill in the next step.
2. Used a hatch fill to help make the words stand out more. A hatch fill is a lot of lines really close together that will make your words look like they are filled in, but really the Cricut machine is just making lots of lines inside the letters or whatever shape you apply the hatch fill to. See my YouTube video for an example. You can get a hatch fill pattern from my free library. (If you need the password, then look to the right side once you clicked the link to my library page). The hatch fill will look like just a big black rectangle.
   • You could also make a lot of offsets of your text or shape, but I prefer the look of the hatch fill myself. If you use the offset method, then start by making your offsets -0.069. Continue to make offsets until you are happy with how your piece is filled in. The offset number and the amount of offsets you will need will depend on the shape you are using. Then select all of the offsets at once and click attach.  
3. Place your piece of metal on a purple strong grip mat and apply blue painters tape around the edges to make sure it will not shift during the engraving. Your metal needs to be able to fit under your machine, so it should not be thicker than 2mm. Do not forget to move your star wheels off to the side so your piece of metal does not go under them and get scratched.
4. Once your machine has engraved your words onto your piece of metal, carefully remove your metal from your strong grip mat and cut it out by hand.
5. Apply gorilla glue to the back of your metal piece and appl it to your wood base. I used random items I had laying around to help hold my metal piece in place as my glue dried.