Tuesday, June 21, 2011

DIY - Decorate Wooden Letters

Vacations rock!! My semester is over and I'm off work too (for two weeks!!)...

One of my friends at work is pregnant specting a baby girl named Pamela, I wanted to do a little something for her since she's now preparing the nursery (she'll be due in Sept). Since I love doing some scrapbooking and stuff, I decided to do the words "Baby" for the nursery door and will soon be doing "Pamela" for her to hang on the wall right above the crib. I was lucky enough to find the "Baby" word at one of the local stores, the letters measure 15 cms each, big enough for the nursery door. I had to do some research since I had never done something like this before, there are many ways to do beautiful embellished wooden letters, you can handpaint them, you can buy them already decorated, you can paint them with a solid color and use a background with a piece of the baby's bedding for it to match with the theme you've chosen for the nursery and you can also use scrapbook paper to decorate them (my choice).

Materials:

- Wooden Letters
- Scrapbook paper, if you're doing this as a gift for somebody special, make sure you ask what the color of the nursery will be so that you can choose the right colors. Choosing what paper to use might seem easy but IT'S NOT, there are SO MANY different patterns ans colors and options to choose from that you get lost, reason why I asked my sister to help me find the perfect combination.
- Mod Pedge or you can also use a mixture of glue and water.
- Color Spray (to paint the sides/back of the letters) or acrylic paint (unless you buy a prepainted letter)
- Brush to add mod pedge to the letter
- Scissors or craft knife
- Embellishments (stickers, ribbons, buttons, etc)


Instructions:
1. Paint the back and the sides of the letters using spray or acrylic paint.


2. Once you've chosen what paper to use, lay your letter face down on the back of the paper and trace. You can chose one paper or two like I did.


3. Cut the paper using your scissors or craft knife. Then place the paper letter on the top of the wooden letter. Make any adjustments to the paper if necessary.

4. Apply a thin coat of Pod Modge or glue to the wooden letter and quickly place the paper on and smooth any air bubbles on it using your fingers. It should look like this:


5. Once the letter has dried, you can apply a thin coat of mod pedge to the surface to seal it. (optional).

6. You can now add all the embellishments you wish, use your creativity!!



It's simple and easy to do this project, you should definitely do it yourself. Hope my friend likes it!!



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