Every girl dreams of what her new last name will be someday. Some even scribble it on notepads and test out the variations. So when it hit me after our engagement that I would soon have a new last name I wanted to incorporate that as random decorations at our wedding. For things like the gift, seating card and guest book table I plan to have decorations that run with the theme and colors of my wedding.
For this project I headed out to Micheal's (my go-to craft store. If Hobby Lobby was closer I would go there...) and bought a few of their wooden craft letters. I decided to make each of them different.
The first one I decided to decorate it all over with pearls. All you need is:
1 - Decorative Letter
1 - Hot Glue Gun
Assorted Pearls
Patience and Not Minding a Burn Here or There
I started at the innermost part and put a goop (yes, that's a technical term) of glue onto the letter. About enough for 3 or 4 beads. They are small and I liked to have enough time to place them while the glue was still hot.
For the thinnest part I used smaller beads and as the letter thickened I selected an assortment of sizes to add.
Once you get rolling I recommend after each goop using a large pearl and then a medium then smallest. That way the smallest ones can fit into the space making it a tighter more solid look.
HINT: I had a ton of glue strings that dangled from the last goop as I pulled away the glue gun. Just wipe them away as you go before they get stuck on permanently which isn't so pretty.
Just continue that until you are done and voila! You have a beautiful pearly letter to use at a wedding or even just at your home as a wall or mantle decoration.
For the next decorative letter you'll need:
1 - Decorative Letter
1 - Hot Glue Gun
Assorted Pearls
Assorted Paper Flowers (of Sizes, Colors, and Designs)
I got my box of paper flowers at Michael's and didn't even use half of them (that means at some point in the future there will be another craft with them!)
I didn't take as many pictures along the way with this one so I'll just describe how to put it together.
Take the largest of the flowers and put a drop of glue on the back in just the center of the flower and place onto the letter. Cover the entire letter with the first lay of flowers. Try to put different styles and colors next to each other. I recommend leaving just a little bit of the petals off of the edges so that you can't really see the edge of the letters.
After you have the first layer go back over with a second lay of smaller flowers. Again, a small drop in the center of the petal and put it onto the already glued one. I made sure that the top flower was never the same as the underneath.
For a few of the flowers I added a third layer. This let some pop higher than others.
Finally I glued on various sizes of pearls to the center of each flower. For this place the glue drop onto the FLOWER not the pearl. It's just easier and you're less likely to burn yourself.
For our last of the decorative letters this one is was the most time consuming. You'll need
1 - Decorative Flower
1 - Hot Glue Gun
1 - Roll of Twine
Patience and a good TV show.
To start take the back of the letter and place a healthy strip of glue and use that to secure the end of the twine.
Hopefully your letter is an M or an L or something without curved edges. The C made it difficult to completely cover the edge because the twine wants to slide off. If you have more patience than I do and use more glue it will be fine but I'm a "just get it done" kind of girl. (You'll see...)
Anyways after that is secured you can start to wrap twine around. Keep it tight and make sure that each layer is close to the one before. After every 5 or so I would add a strip of glue on the back and lay the twine to keep it as secure as possible. Sometime I would even put it on the edges of the letter. I tried to keep it off the front because it can make it look strange or the glue can seep through.
Because of the curve I would wrap a section and then from the back side go at an angle an inch or so up on the blank part and then wrap it back to the completed part. This was easier for me with the curve of the letter but it's also personal preference. I liked the way that it gave it a different texture.
Continue to wrap all the way around an add glue to secure as needed.
Coming upon the last section I struggled a but. The twine wanted to keep sliding off because of the angle and I didn't want to keep wrapping over the same section because the thickness of the inside would have looked strange. So I had to do a few different angles and lots of back and side glue to cover it all.
After everything was covered a secured the end of the twine to the back with more glue. I also went over the letter and at a few parts it looked like the twine wanted to slide so I secured that with glue.
The last step was adding an accent flower with glitter embellishment. Do this just as in the decorative letter above.
And there you have it! In one evening you can have three awesome decorative letters complete!
