His nursery is slow coming together. Hopefully this week I can crack down and get stuff sorted out/packed up/moved to the basement. That room has been a guest room/office for a year and a half, which really translates to a dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home otherwise. I'm wishfully thinking that one solid evening of work and I can get everything cleaned out.
But until the current furniture and "stuff" comes out and the crib and baby gear gets moved in, carpet scrubbed and so on...I can keep myself busy making some cute decorations! Now that we have a name picked out, I wanted to make something cute to hang on the wall with his name. I looked into buying those wooden letters you can get anywhere and painting them, but they run between $3 and $6, depending on where you go and what style you choose. Add in the cost of paint and I'd be over $20. Not going to break the bank, but I knew I could do it cheaper.
My cheaper DIY solution involved only cardboard, a small bit of fabric and my hot glue gun!
First, I printed off the letters I needed from a basic Word document in a cute, but simple font. Each letter took up almost one whole page. Printing off the letters and cutting them out took less than 10 minutes.
I took a scrap cardboard box and traced the letters onto the cardboard. I made sure it was heavy cardboard, just to give the letters more bulk. A layer of foam or some kind of padding would work glued onto the cardboard too. Cutting them out was the worst part! I didn't think to do it with a razor or Exact-o knife, which would have been much easier. I used scissors, which is insanely difficult and my hand is still cramped this morning!
So my advice to anyone wanting to try this is to find a more effecient way of cutting out your letters!
Then I picked out the fabric that coordinated with the other nursery gear I've bought/registered for. Months ago, I placed a huge fabric order online, so I have a bunch that all matches. These barely used any fabric though, so I can't count that as an expense. I used the cardboard cut outs to trace onto the fabric, leaving extra space the whole way around. The mistake I made here was not leaving enough fabric. I'd say to leave at least an inch, possibly more. Using the hot glue is downright painful if you don't have enough fabric to work with! (Take my word for it.)
All that was left was to glue down the fabric onto the cardboard letters! This was pretty simple, although like I mentioned before, I wish I had left more fabric to work with! My poor fingertips are quite burnt today! Going around the curves in the letters got tricky at some points, so I think I'd choose a simpler font if/when I attempt this again. But as long as you keep it pulled tight as you glue down, it's quick and easy!
Start to finish, the whole thing took about 2 hours. Not bad at all and I'm proud of how they turned out! Cramped hand and burnt fingers were worth it!
Oh, right, by the way, baby boy's name is Levi! =)
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