Love Letters

I love (ha!) this! I found a similar idea for DIY lettering on Pinterest and decided to make my own version. These are cardboard letters from Wal-Mart that I painted and covered in jewels from Michaels. I bought the value pack (The Big Bling) to make sure I had enough, and I have a ton left over, so I may make some more.

The "O" is red because I have come across lettering that has a red heart in its place and really liked it, so I tried to duplicate that idea here. 

I also really like that the letters are not uniform. The red "O" and the different patterns on each letter make the arrangement more interesting and give it character. 

Ok, on to the details.

First, I put out newspaper and brought out my paint supplies.  I mixed a few colors to find shades that would work well with the gems. To make them easy to paint, I put pushpins in the back so I had something to hold while I painted and to prevent the paint from sticking to the newspaper. 

After I was happy with the color (it took a couple tries!), I placed the gems on each letter so I knew how each would look. The original design that I saw was uniform, but my gems were not. The bag had a mix of sizes, so I decided to go with it and make the letters a mixture too.

Once all the letters were covered, I started hot gluing the gems in place. This requires careful hands because it is very easy to knock the gems off. Though it might have been easier to design as I glued, it was often necessary to move gems around to eliminate gaps, particularly with the "V," above.  A strategy that I used to prevent this was to glue the gems on the perimeter first, so they held the others in place. 

Once I was done, I cleaned off the strings left behind by the hot glue. No matter how clean I try to be, it's inevitable that my projects look like they are covered in spider webs once I'm done. I also flipped the letters over to make sure all the gems were securely glued on. 

To hang them up, I trimmed an upside-down "v" in two spots on the back of each letter. This allowed me to place them with finishing nails and also keep them even. Though, now that's it's done, I realize that I could have just used Command Strips, or some other quick adhesive. Oh well!

And there you go! Cute DIY Lettering. 

Total project cost -

$3/letter, $12 total + 

$20 for The Big Bling gems ($12 w/ 40% off coupon), $4 for one third of the bag + 

$4 for red gems + 

paint, which I already had (about $1 per color otherwise)

=$20

Not bad! Let me know what you think in the comments!