Hang them on the wall or stand them on a tabletop, big letters seem to be a new decorating touch these days. Linda Watson made the very labor-intensive letters that Carol demonstrated on the program today but for a true crafter that might make the challenge all the more interesting. The basic letters, made from cut up corrugated cartons, are certainly very inexpensive to make. It is the finishing touches that can make them costly but this is not necessary to make them both interesting and attractive. If you are an excellent printer you simply draw yourself some large letters to spell out what you will. If you need help you can either use graph paper to draw your letters or go to the art supply store or the library and select a book of fonts. Pick your choice and have the necessary letters enlarged and printed at your local copy shop. Or, you can follow Linda's lead. She used a software publishing company on her computer. The grand thing about this was that she told the computer how large she wanted the letters to be and even though she had only 81/2 x 11" paper in her printer it printed them to size using as many pages as it deemed necessary. After completing the letters Linda covered them with a variety of finishes to give you an idea how versatile these can be. Materials: many cardboard cartons
several pieces sturdy cardboard
1" wide masking tape (1")
Rigid Wrap
drawn or printed letters*
paint, gold leaf or other finishing material
Steps: - Cut out letters, trace onto sturdy cardboard and cut out. These will be your patterns. The letters in CREATE were approximately 11" wide and 14" high. The others were slightly smaller.
- Trace around pattern letter onto corrugated cardboard and cut out. Repeat from 8 to ten more times ALWAYS using the original letter as your pattern. Because the corrugated cardboard will be covered it makes no difference which way the corrugation is facing.
- When the stacked cut outs reach desired height (those demonstrated were approximately 2") hold them together by wrapping completely with strips of masking tape.
- It is at this point that the letters can be covered with paper mache using torn pieces of newspaper. Linda used short pieces of Rigid Wrap (plaster of paris impregnated gauze) instead. One layer is sufficient. Allow to dry thoroughly.
- To all intents and purposes the letters are completed to be decorated as you see fit. Linda covered the letters in the craft room, C R E A T E, first with a textured modeling paste which she swirled to make patterns and then covered them with Magic Leaf which is a patterned gold leaf. The letters in the kitchen, EAT were coated first with a textured gel and then sprayed with suede spray paint. GO, the letters in the living room, were covered with a modeling paste, painted copper and then covered with instant patina. And last, the single initial D was coated first with sand paint and colored with chalk paint.
* The letters CREATE were made using the Chelsea Studio font. The letters EAT were made using a font called Ereasure and the letters GO were made using Helvetica Italic font.
RESOURCES :
Liquitex Texture Gel modeling paste
Liquitex
11 Constitution Ave.
Piscataway, NJ 08855-1396
US
Phone: 732-562-0770
Toll Free Phone: 800-445-4278
URL: www.liquitex.com
Krylon Make It Suede! spray paint
Krylon Products Group
Website: www.krylon.com
Rigid Wrap plaster tape
Activa Products Inc.
Website: www.activaproducts.com
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