Letters

This past weekend I got to go home for the first time since I started college. Only one of my other friends was also home that weekend so we met for lunch at the mall. I had bought everything to make her graduation present months before graduation but hadn’t made her present or given it to her yet. I made it on Halloween and gave it to her with some shower gel and body spray on Saturday. Right before I started this blog I made my letter, so I only have pictures of the B and not the process. These letters are perfect for door or wall decoration in a dorm because you can make them in whatever colors your decor is.

My materials:

1. The wooden letters – these ones are 8 inches tall
2. Paint
3. Rhinestone Sheet
4. Paint brush, cup, paper plate
5. Sharpie
6. Scissors
7. Something to hang it with – I suggest Command squares

When I first began thinking about decorating my dorm I pinned many things that I could potentially do. I also knew that I wanted to make somewhat matching letters for me and my friend. About a month ago I realized I had exactly what I needed to make my own version of the pin below. I made mine without looking at the blog, but I highly recommend looking at the original post if you don’t want to freehand chevron! (Pin here, original blog post at Gettin’ Crafty: Sorority Style)

To make my B I freehanded chevron onto my letter with pencil. Then I painted 1 coat of the gray paint and 2 with the blue paint which was thinner. While I painting each color I also painted the edges of the letter. When all of the paint had dried I drew Sharpie lines to even out the edges and also to make a guide for the rhinestones. I took a rhinestone sheet – which is like one giant sticker – and using scissors cut a line of rhinestone off of the sheet which I then used to systematically cover the Sharpie lines, cutting off the line at each edge and change in direction with the scissors. After I made sure the rhinestone wouldn’t be coming off I hung my letter on my bedroom door using a Command square behind the top two corners.

When I sat down to make my friend’s letter I realized that doing chevron on it would be much harder and that just straight lines would make it look classier. So this is before I did anything:

My first step was to freehand gray lines with paint. I knew that the yellow paint would cover it up but if you’re worried you could draw lines in pencil before painting anything. It only took one thick coat of paint. I also painted the edges where the gray paint was.

The next step was to paint the yellow lines. The yellow paint was thinner so I used two coats instead of just one. Because I was free-handing with the paint the lines look really bad in this photo but I evened them out in the next step. Once again I painted the edges where the yellow paint was on top.

The third step was to outline each stripe in Sharpie. Not only would this serve as a guide for the rhinestones but it also straightens out the paint edges. If the yellow paint was really far out of line I touched it up quickly with some gray paint. This was only necessary for two spots.

The final step was to apply the rhinestones. I used the same rhinestone sheet as with my B and there is still some rows leftover. I used the same process as with the B, cutting off a row and working systematically to apply the rhinestones, cutting the remainder of the row off when I reached an edge. The E was much easier to apply rhinestones to because it was all horizontal lines, not diagonal lines in different directions like the B.

My friend is sending my a picture of her letter when she hangs up. When I get I’ll put it in this post so you can see how it looks on a wall and not on random newspaper. I gave her the letter with the two Command squares and with some other stuff, but she said that the letter was perfect for her gray and yellow dorm room! I like how both of the letters turned out and plan to make more for gifts but I might try something other than rhinestones. If you have any suggestions for more letters or want to show off your own letter creation, comment below!

Bri