Scrapbooked Letters

This post is bringing in more of the ‘buttons’ part of the blog, a piece I fully admit I’ve been slightly neglecting. I do more cooking than crafting in a normal week so perhaps that’s why the ratio of cooking to crafting isn’t very even.

Regardless, this post is for all you out there that have the crafty urge every now and then and perhaps don’t know what to make. This would be great to do with your initials or even just the first letter of your first or last name.

Maybe it’s the curse of being in a sorority, but we crafted letters all the time. Most every room in the house had a girl’s name on the wall or maybe just a big A X O on a shelf (I was in Alpha Chi Omega for those who aren’t as familiar with the Greek alphabet.) At one point a had a big B E T S Y going down one wall decorated with, what else, buttons. Like I said, perhaps it was a silly sorority girl thing, but I think we had more fun making the letters than really seeing them up on the wall.

(And no, I don’t still have my name spelled out my wall.)

SO, my friend Andrea, whom we recently celebrated at her bachelorette party (where we ate these tasty meatballs), was the one who came up with the idea for this craft. She wanted to make a “MR & MRS” to have up at the head table during her wedding this coming September. I’m not sure yet if she plans to hang these from the table or have them standing upright. Either way, they’ll look great!

You don’t need a whole lot to craft these and you may already have some of the materials.

Materials:

• Wooden letters
• Scrapbook paper or any other type of paper you’d like to use (it should be thick though!)
• Sharp scissors
• Double-sided adhesive tape (this is the kind we used – really worked!)
• Modge Podge
• Pencil
• Acrylic paint in the colors you’d like to use
• Foam paintbrush

How to Make:

First decide what paper you’d like to use for which letters. Andrea’s plan was to use one type of paper for the M and R of the MR, a different paper for the M, R and S for the MRS and a different paper for the ampersand in between.

For us, we had a one of the scrapbooks papers that was clear. Thus we needed to paint the letters first, before putting the paper on. She also wanted the edges of all the letters painted. If you’re in the same boat, you’ll want to do any of your painting first.

Here’s the S for the MRS drying:

After the letters have dried enough for you to pick them and touch them (make sure they’re not too tacky) you need to trace the letters onto the appropriate paper. Andrea wanted both sides of the letters to have paper on them, so we traced paper for both sides of all of the letters. You could also chose to paint the backs or perhaps leave them bare. The latter would be if you’re planning on putting them up on a shelf or a wall where no ones sees the back.

If you squint, you’ll see a large ampersand traced in the photo below.

After you’ve traced all the letters, carefully cut them all out. Try to cut inside the lines so you don’t have any pen/pencil marks on the paper. I’d recommend using a pencil so you can easily erase any marks still visible on the paper.

Now time to put the paper on the letters…

Now, this step depends on which type of paper you’re using. If the paper is clear at all, you’ll want to use the double-sided adhesive to adhere the paper to the wooden letters. Or, if your paper is completely opaque, you can use Modge Podge underneath and then again as a top coat on top of the paper. We used both methods with the MRS letters having the clear paper and the ampersand and the MR letters having opaque paper.

That’s all there is to it! And depending on your smoothing-out abilities, the paper should look great on the letters with very few air bubbles. We were amateurs in this skill, so there were a few air bubbles here and there. However, from far away, you can’t see them one bit.

Don’t they look great?!? And the bride-to-be looks pretty great herself!

With a little paint, scrapbook paper, patience and some good company – you too can make some fun letters! I’m considering making a large wooden ‘V’ for our front hallway as my roommate and I both have last names that begin with V. (Really I just want to craft the letter itself, let’s be honest.)

Happy crafting! 🙂

Tags: Scrapbook Paper, Wooden Letters