LOVE MONTH

Hi, Natalie here.

In light of it being February, I'm going to show you a love project I made.
I saw something similar to this, thought it was lovely, and I've made my own version.

I used a theme of love, and came up with words for each letter that in some way relate to my husband. I used Making Memories chipboard letters, and instead of using the letter, I used the negative. I also used scraps of BasicGrey paper from one of my earlier projects for this blog. Chipboard for the most part is small, so it’s great to use paper scraps on it.

So let me tell you how I did it.
Before I attached any paper, I laid out my letters to decide how many lines of letters I’d have and whether my design would sit symmetrical or not. Once I decided this, I cut rectangles the size of the chipboard from my paper scraps. With all my papers cut and my letters laid out, I arranged the paper atop the chipboard to decide where my colors would live. I didn’t want two of the same paper too close together. I wrote on the back of each paper which letter it belonged to. I punched out the letter centers that I would not need, and I proceeded with a glue stick to attach the paper to the negative rectangles.

When every piece of chipboard was covered, I sanded around the edges with a nail file to show the white core of the paper. Then I straight stitched around each one. (The M & W were large, so I only stitched along the top and bottom of those two.)

Then I used an x-acto knife to cut out the center of the letters face down on a cutting mat. (for the letters that had a piece in the center, like this letter "e" here, I attach that little piece to the back of the paper where it should sit, and cut it out too.) Then I sanded the inside of each letter.

When there were finished, I laid them out again in the arrangement I’d decided on, and spaced them to determine how big I needed to cut my board they would be attached to. I took into account the words I wanted to print and attach beneath the letters. I measured spaces between the letters and determined the perfect size of my board. I cut it and spray painted it black. I sanded the edge of the board like I did on the chipboard letters.

Using foam adhesive, I attached each letter to the board. I printed my words on Glossy photo paper, and tried to find the same font as the chipboard. I printed a couple tests on plain paper to get my sizing just right. And then attached them with liquid adhesive.


It was easy to make, but I won’t lie, all those letters took some time to sand and cut out!! :)
(ps DH was very impressed and pleased. That's an awesome bonus.)