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.
No comments:
Post a Comment