12/6/12

Holiday Greeting Letters DIY

Hi guys! 
     Recently I was invited to be a guest blogger for a group of awesome gals who call themselves Ladies of the Mountains (LOTM).  They have asked me to share a holiday craft DIY with you, so after some thought I decided I would make some festive holiday lettering decor, which was originally inspired by these monograms from Anthropologie!  I don't know about you, but I can't currently afford to pay $48 for a wooden letter!  This DIY cost me a total of, drum roll please, ZERO DOLLARS, because I already had all of the supplies!  And I quite like my new room letters!  I will walk you through the simple steps I took to make the holiday greetings decor below.
1. Pick out your phrase! I originally was planning to do the phrase "Merry & Bright" but realized I needed quite a large amount of space to fit those letters! Some other fun options would be "Peace", "Joy", or "Fa La La".  
Supplies Needed: Old magazines, ruler, scissors, exacto knife (box cutter), markers, craft glue, and cardboard.
2. Rip out some of your favorite pictures from magazines.  The magazines I used for this project were Free People, Anthropologie, Swell, and Urban Outfitters.  I tried to choose images that had a lot of colors or textures that would show up well.
 3. Draw a letter onto each magazine page.  Make sure to use a ruler so you can keep your letters relatively the same size with straight edges.  My letters were all approximately 7"x 8.5". You can look at different fonts online for guidance!
 4.  Cut out your letters, but if there is an inside cutout on the letter, like on a "B", leave those for now.
 5. Using your exact knife, cut out cardboard mounting squares for each letter.  Make sure to be cutting on at least two layers of cardboard so you don't ruin whatever is beneath what you're cutting.
 6.  Glue your letters to the cardboard squares.  Make sure the letters have a light coat of glue completely covering the back, and use your finger to smooth down any bubbles or lines once the letter is in place. Let dry.
 7. Lastly, use your exacto knife to cut out the letters!  Curved letters are harder to cut, but still doable.  Practice making some curves on scrap cardboard first, and remember to press hard and point the knife away from you! Smooth solid lines of cutting movement make the best edges. And voila! Now you have your pretty holiday greeting letters to put anywhere you please!  Below are a few examples of different ways I tried arranging them in different places around my room.  Which is your favorite?
For now, they will be living in the little picture window above my bed!  Whew, I have not done a craft project in such a long time, it felt so nice to be creative after work instead of my typical slumpy ball of hatefulness! Also, I would like to point out my new digitally printed "barn wood" floor mat that I asked my parents for for my birthday! I am planning to use it as my flooring for my vintage listings on etsy, but it worked really nicely as a display area for this project too! So much better then the lumpy carpet that's actually in my bedroom!
    I hope you guys enjoyed that little DIY! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and if you decide to try out making your own letter or word yourself, let me know!  Now I will be heading over to see all of the holiday crafts from the other lovely Ladies of the Mountains, and you guys should too!
http://www.gentrilee.com/

xo hannah

24 comments:

  1. SO cute! And I love the little window above your bed that is perfect for displaying them. :) Would you mind adding my blog to the link list?? haha!

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  2. This is brilliant. I think I might actually do this one. I need some projects to make my house a wee bit more festive. I'm trying to make ALL of my decorations this year, so this is a perfect evening project to spruce things up a bit. Thanks for joining us this week!!

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  3. This is awesome!! Fits in the window perfectly :) Now I know what to do with all those magazines I've got hanging around

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  4. I love this. And I love love love your wood flooring. Xx. McKenna Lou
    www.lynnandlou.blogspot.com

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  5. I LOVE THIS. I will have to attempt this myself. There are so many projects out there I need/want to do. This is making its way to the top!
    xo,
    nancy

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  6. Love these!! And your very detailed step by step instructions actually made it seem doable! Love them in your window (and love your rug)!!! xxxooo Mom

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  7. So nice! Original idea.

    Valeria.
    http://myurbanmarket.blogspot.it

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  8. I really love how these turned out. Plus, you can customize them to what colors and pictures you like on the letters. That's something you don't get if you were to buy them at Anthropologie. And, gotta love a free DIY!! :)

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  9. I love this DIY - so creative and looks amazing <3

    Trendy Teal

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  10. Whoa- those look EXACTLY like the Anthropologie ones (only better because they are not the size of small children and can therefore spell out whole words.)

    Great DIY and I like the floor :)

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  11. Hannah this is SO cute! I wanna do this, ASAP.

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  12. wow girl you did an amazing job! those are so pretty and I love how they aren't your typical, in your face holiday decoration. loved the tutorial how you told us about the little things I always do wrong (like measuring & cutting) and how did you even manage to get beautiful pictures of the process?! you rock!
    http://dusanabotswana.com

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  13. Oh my god you are so talented! Theres no way I could do this as well as you did!

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  14. Love this DIY! So clever! I am your newest GFC follower :)

    http://www.mythriftychic.com/

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  15. This is so pretty! I really love it. It would be lovely as a garland on the wall too!

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  16. These are so cute! And I'm surprised by how easy it was! I keep seeing large wooden letters at craft stores that are fairly inexpensive, so I'm thinking you could even do this using those and still come in well under the $48 Anthropologie price.

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  17. Yayyy it's Friday!!! (I know you were excited for that haha).

    1. What an awesome, awesome name. 'Ladies of the mountains'. I feel like the lot of you have spears and viking horn helmets. If that was the case, then I'd want in on it.
    2. I can't believe how super easy that was and how super cute it turned out. I especially loved that you used an Anthropologie catalog- swoon. Haha when I saw this I thought of what Marc asked me when I was telling him how I wanted to decorate our new apartment in a few months- "Are you going to make it look all...Pinteresty?"

    This would fall under that category :)

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  18. I love this! I usually save my anthro catalogs for cards and such too since they are taunting me with pretty pictures :) Hawaii sounds like an amazing way to spend the holidays!

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  19. That's fantastic! I might have to add this to our Christmas crafts this year.

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  20. great idea. i did something similar to this the other day!

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  21. This is so cute Hannah!! The colors and collage look are so fun, and i love it with the lights! I love that it cost nothing too! I might seriously have to try this! And I totally thought that was a wood floor until you mentioned it. Brilliant! Also, I'm blogging buddies/real life friends with Gentri! Small world.
    -Jessi
    haircutandgeneralattitude.blogspot.com

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