Hanging Letter for Front Door

I’m making a few Christmas gifts this year, though I won’t be posting them until after Christmas. This blog is advertised on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, so I can’t really be sure who is following me. However, I know my mother isn’t following this blog, so I can post her present for you. And I’m really excited about it, so I’m going to. =P

Her gift is much like the hand-painted letter I posted when I first created this blog, with a few changes.

What you will need:

• a wooden letter
• paint (one color)
• scrapbook paper
• glue
• mod podge
• ribbon
• button
• hot glue
• exacto knife

Step 01: Paint your letter.

Step 02: Take the paper that you chose (mine was more of a plastic), put your letter on it, and trace the letter. You can (and probably should) do this before you paint the letter. I did it after and it turned out fine…I just wound up having to retouch some places. Cut out the paper and glue it to your letter with either regular glue or a glue stick.

Step 03: Take an exacto knife and even out the edges of the paper (be sure to correct any areas where you may accidentally scrape off the paint–don’t worry, it will still look OK). Spread mod podge over the whole letter. (About 3-4 coats should do it.)

In case you’re wondering, I used the matte finish. I know the letter doesn’t look much different in the pictures, but it looks so much more polished with the mod podge. Plus it keeps the paper from sticking up at the edges.

Step 04: Tie a piece of ribbon around the top of the letter. Hot glue the front and back of the ribbon to keep it from moving around too much. With another piece of ribbon, make a bow and attach it to the top of the first ribbon.

Step 05: Hot glue a button to the center of the ribbon.

I had some issues with the hot glue gun, but I’ve very happy with the end results.

A run-down of the cost of this gift: the letter was about $3.99, the ribbon was $1.99, I found the button in my travel sewing kit (so it was free) and I had the paint already as well. The paper was $0.59. So making this gift cost me $6.57. Not bad. =)

I’m only making a couple gifts this year. I’m going to see how that goes and if it’s well-received, then I  may do a completely DIY Christmas next year. Are you guys doing any homemade presents?

ETA: I forgot to mention this…yes, you can make your own mod podge. It’s just Elmer’s glue (the permanent kind in the white bottle–NOT the washable kind) and water. Two parts glue, one part water. And if that doesn’t seem right after you do it…add whichever one you think it needs more of until it reaches your desired consistency.

I didn’t do this because…I really just didn’t feel like it. Plus I had a 40% off coupon and no containers to put the homemade stuff in. Buying the glue and the container would have been more expensive than buying the mod podge with the coupon.