Painted Letters/Monograms with pictures

These are letters I made for a friend for Christmas. I made something similar for my dorm and she asked me to make one for her as well. These are really simple to make and make great artwork for a wall.

Items You Will Need

1. Wooden letters. These can be found at any craft store.

2. Paint. You can find at either a craft store or Walmart.

3. Brushes. I like using the sponge brushes since they tend to leave a more ever coat and it's less time consuming. However, if you plan on painting the edges a different color than the top, then I would recommend using a smaller brush or a q-tip to avoid getting the color on the top.

4. Pictures. The pictures I used I just printed out from my computer and printed them in black in white. Cheap and easy. Also have a separate brush for the mod podge part.

5. Mod-podge. This is what keeps the pictures on the letter. This can also be found at Walmart or any craft store.

6. (optional) Borders. For the letters pictured above I used some leftover "teacher borders" type things that I had leftover from a project from sixth grade or something. I have no idea where they came from but I am sure they can be found at craft stores. You could also cut out small squares or scrapbook paper, and then place the picture on top of that to also obtain a border effect.

How To Make It

1. If the wood of the letters is rough, I recommend taking a piece of sand paper and sanding it down a little until the wood is smooth. I promise this will be a big help to you when painting. Painting will go on a lot smoother, requiring less coats. Also, it will just look neater.

2. It's time to start painting. I start out with painting the top of the letters first. Paint your first coat and then let it completely dry. Repeat until you get the color desired. Then I moved to the edges. This should be done carefully to try to avoid getting paint on the top you just painted. Also, depending on the letter, you might want to only paint certain edges, wait for them to dry, then paint the others in order to avoid sticking your hands in wet paint. If you get paint on the top part, just carefully touch it up, let it dry, and repeat until it's back to normal. An easy fix.

3. After the paint is completely dry, and I do mean completely, it's time to mod-podge your pictures to the letter. First, layout your pictures across the letter to make sure they fit and are ordered the way you want them. If need be, snip some of the pictures accordingly so they fit on the letter. It might take some trial and error and a little time. When you have the pictures placed where you want them put a little, and I really do emphasize little, mod-podge on a brush and brush it all over the back of a picture. Seriously guys, little bit of mod-podge. If you use too much, it'll ruin the picture and just really messy. Then place the picture on the frame. Make sure the picture is laid out evenly, if not just run your finger over it to straighten it out. Then repeat with the other pictures. If you are using scrapbook paper to create the border effects, mod-podge your pictures to scrapbook paper first and then mod-podge it on the frame. Once the pictures are on the frame, some people like to do a layer of mod-podge on top as well, but I do not and my pictures currently look fine on the letter. 

4. If you are using borders, trim the borders to fit around the pictures and lay them out over the pictures first to make sure everything is the way you want them. If they look good, go ahead and brush a LITTLE mod-podge on them and lay them down around the picture. This may get a little frustrating and messy since they are so small, but it's worth it. 

5. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of the first letter I made for my room. It's not my favorite, but here is just another option. I also added music note stickers to mine since I'm a music major and I feel like my letter needed something extra.

Polka Dot Frame

This is a frame I made for one my best friends for Christmas. These make great gifts, especially since you can personalize it to fit whatever situation. It's really inexpensive and doesn't take very long to make. Not to mention that my friend loved it!

Items You Will Need

1. Frame. This particular frame was purchased at Michael's. I normally buy all of my frames for Walmart or Hobby Lobby since they are cheaper, but I was at Michael's and they are the only store I have found with this type of frame. Also, a tip for picking out a frame, make sure to look over the frame carefully before to buy it to check if there are any cracks or anything. I try to find frames that don't have cracks, the edges are smooth, and the wood is a little bit of a lighter color (just to make painting a little easier).

2. Paint. This can be found at any craft store or Walmart for pretty cheap.

3. Picture. Again, I recommend using the instant prints at Walmart if you don't already have a picture. Or you can always print one from your computer as well haha

4. Q-tips. A good way to paint the polka dots.

5. Paint-pen or sharpie. To write the quote. Either works just as well as the other. I used a black sharpie for this frame and the outcome is just the same as if you use a paint pen. But paint pens can be found at Walmart or any craft store in the paint aisle.

6. Brushes. I like to use sponge brushes when I paint large areas of wood, the color comes out more even

How To Make It

1. If your frame is really rough, especially around the edges, I recommend taking a piece of sand paper and lightly sanding the frame to make it smooth. Not only will it look a lot better, but it will be a whole lot easier to paint. Also take out the glass or plastic in the picture section of the frame before you do anything with paint.

2. Paint the entire frame the color you would like to be your base color. However, keep in mind that the color you paint your polka dots needs to be seen over the base color, but I really don't think that will be a huge problem. Make sure you paint the frame evenly. Wait for the first coat to dry and then paint another coat. Repeat until you are happy with the outcome. It normally only takes about two coats and I don't like there to be any sign of wood at all. Also, whether or not you want to paint the back side of the frame is up to you (I always do because it looks more professional in my opinion)

3. Once the base is completely dry, then take a Q-tip, dip it in the paint that you wish to be the polka dot. Carefully draw the outline of the polka dots on your frame, replacing the q-tip when necessary, since it will become frayed after a few uses. Once you have your outlines, begin to fill them in, still using a Q-tip. You will have to do several coats in order for the color to be even. Be sure to wait for each coat to dry before you start another coat, otherwise the first coat will get messed up. Normally the coat is dry by the time you finish with the rest of the polka dots. Another option: if you are worried about the way your polka dots will turn out, lightly draw them on the frame with a pencil first and then paint. Also, no worries if you mess up a little on the polka dot and paint outside the line, just make the polka dot a little bigger. Optional: to give my frames and polka dots a little bit of more color, I outlined some of them in the color I wrote my quote with. You can either do this with a Sharpie or paint pen. 

4. All the paint on the frame is completely dry, then you can write the quote you wish to write. The one I used was from Starkid's Holy Musical B@tman, since it's an inside joke between my friend and I. And the quote was fitting for our friendship. Later on I might post some of my favorite quotes that I have used, so be on the lookout for that :) Anyways, you can either write out lightly with a pencil your quote if you are worried about bad handwriting like I am, or you can go straight to the Sharpie or paint pen. When using a Sharpie or paint pen, if you are left handed, be sure not to drag your hand or anything in what you just wrote, especially with a paint pen since they tend to be a little bit more watery than a Sharpie. Let this completely dry.

5. Once the frame is completely dry, add your picture and enjoy!

Collages

Are you looking for a good way to display pictures and other memories? I think this is a great way. It's also great for dorm rooms because you can have several smaller items in a larger frame without taking up as much space and remember great times from home. And you can make one about anything, using almost anything. For example, the two above are memories from my senior year of high school. The top one is from where my high school marching band won a Band of America Regional competition and in it I managed to show off my medal, pictures of that amazing night, and notes the band parents left us the night before and morning of the competition. The second one is from where I marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with the Macy's Great American Marching Band and it just has pictures of my friends,pictures of New York I either took or got from Google, and this magnet thing (that wouldn't stick to anything so it was pretty useless) that I wouldn't use anywhere else. However, I also have one from my junior year prom with the prom invitation and pictures, two from vacations I took, and one for each of my best friends. So you really can do anything in these collages, whether it has a theme or not.

Alrighty how to make it!

Things that I used when making mine:

1. Frame. You can get these from anywhere. Dollar store, Walmart, Goodwill, wherever. My the ones I used were actually given to me by my mom since she had no use for them. They were wooden, brown frames but I painted them black so they would fit in with my purple, black, and white room. They can be any size, however I recommend a medium-larger size frame if you want to hold more things or larger sized pictures

2. Scrapbook paper. Individual sheets can be purchased at almost any craft store for like 40 cents a page or something. Or you can get booklets of scrapbook paper at Walmart or Target. The ones I used were from a booklet of different black, white, gray, and silver damask patterns that I got from Walmart for about five dollars because it was on sale. It just depends on what you want to use. The scrapbook paper acts as a background to your pictures, and etc. Keep in mind the frame when buying scrapbook paper. If you are buying a bigger frame, you might want to buy two pieces of scrapbook paper in order to cover the area of the frame

3. Pictures. I highly recommend getting pictures from the instant prints at Walmart. It's around forty cents a picture and you can just either bring in a memory card, flash drive of pictures you have saved from your computer, etc. Also, for the smaller pictures, I just printed them out on normal computer paper from my printer haha

4. Tape. Obviously. Tape is just not as messy as glue and doesn't discolor pictures like glue happens to do.

5. Scissors

6. Stickers and other items from whatever that you want to add. I used stickers to spell out names and dates and such since writing wouldn't show up on my dark scrapbook paper and because it just seemed neater than actually writing something. I also used these little silver, sparkly sticker things I found at Target to add extra details and elegance (if that even makes sense haha) to mine.

How to Make It!

1. If you need to do anything with the frame, do that first. For example, I had to paint my frame first. So yeah, do whatever you need to do to the frame first.

2. If the back of the frame isn't actually attached to the frame, take that part out. You know, the part you normally have to remove from the frame to put the picture in there. If that part doesn't come out, don't worry, it's still do-able, just a tad harder. 

3. Take your scrapbook paper and lay it over the part of the frame you just removed, or opened. Figure out the way you want to the paper to go. Chances are you are going to have to cut the scrapbook paper somehow in order it to cover all the frame, depending on the size of the frame and it size of the scrapbook paper. In my case, the scrapbook paper was too long but not wide enough. In order to fix this I just marked the point where the scrapbook paper went over the edge of the board thing and cut my marking or where I had folded it over. With the piece of scrapbook paper I had just cut off, I just turned it and I put it over the part of the board that was not covered yet. This is easier to do with a solid scrapbook paper, but it works with patterns as well, depending on the pattern and how OCD you are about the way the patterns face. If you're using polka dots, it won't make a difference which way the paper is turned. For damask like I used, the patterns will face different ways. If this bothers you, just use two sheets of scrapbook paper instead of one. Hopefully that all made sense haha. Anyways, once your paper is arranged how you would like, put tape on the back of the paper, I like putting tape in the corners and the middle :) and tape the paper to the board. 

4. Now the fun and sometimes frustrating part. Arrange your pictures however you want them on your board. This takes a lot of trial and error to see what fits, what looks good, and what all doesn't. There are so many options that things can get frustrating. The way I normally outline mine is to use three of the 4x6 printed pictures and then put the smaller pictures in the empty spots. You might have to trim some of the pictures for them to fit, but they can also overlap too, however you want it to look. You can also cut the 4x6 pictures to fit more on the space and you can place them any direction you would like. Then I would put any embellishments, such as my sparkly silver stickers, in the corner of a picture or in any relatively large free space. Again, it's how you want to design it. Once things are arranged the way you would like, tape them down! 

5. Replace the part of the frame that you took out and there you go! 

Hola!

Hey y'all! So this blog will hopefully give you some craft ideas and explain how to do some crafty things, or at least the crafts I know how to do! I like to consider myself creative and helpful so hopefully this can be helpful to some of you!