Altered Wooden Letter Wall Hanging Tutorial

Happy Saturday! Not much going on around the Brown house today...Mike's working out in the garage and I've been cleaning, doing laundry and working on a few projects. Shown below is a project that I worked on last weekend...it's a wall hanging made out of a wooden letter "R" that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I made it for my friend, Rachel, whose birthday was yesterday.

Here's a list of the materials that I used as well as a quick tutorial on how I made it: 

CTMH Materials:

• Bella Floral Paper
• "With Love" stamp set
• "A Tweet" stamp set
• "Playful Flourishes" stamp set
• "From Me to You" stamp set
• Liquid Glass & Two-Way glue
• Sponge
• Sparkles
• Ink Colors: Chocolate, Topiary, Pansy Purple, Hollyhock, Desert Sand, Creme' Brulee', Sorbet
• Blending Pen
• 3-D Dots
• Sanding Block
• Colonial White Cardstock
• Bronze Bitty Brad
• Paper Piercing tool
• Cocoa Ribbon

Non CTMH Materials:

• Wooden letter
• Sponge brush
• Acrylic paint
• Purple, dome-shaped button
• Paper towels
• Purple brads

Begin by painting the outside edges of your wooden letter with a sponge brush and acrylic paint of your choice. Once painted, set aside to dry.

While the paint is drying, stamp the images of your choice, color in with a Blending Pen, and then add additional detail by sponging ink on the stamped designs if desired.

Cut out stamped images and set aside. When painted edges on the wooden letter are dry, place it right side down on the back side of a piece of B&T paper. Trace around the letter and cut out the traced image.

Once the image has been cut out, thoroughly cover the front of the wooden letter with Two-Way glue making sure that you go completely to the edges of the letter with the glue to ensure good adherance.

Starting at the bottom of the letter, carefully attach the cut out paper letter to the wooden letter, smoothing out any air bubbles as you go.

At this point your letter doesn't look like much...but here's where the fun begins! Once the glue has completely dried, (while you wait for the glue to dry, eat a bowl of ice cream and browse through the new CTMH Idea Book!!), use a sanding block and sand the edges of the letter to remove any paper that may hang over the edge. Then use Chocolate ink and distress the edges of the letter by gently rubbing the ink pad along the edges. (If you prefer, you can also sponge ink around the edges). Set the letter aside and take your cut out flower images to the kitchen sink. Place several layers of paper towels on the kitchen counter. Crumple up each flower and put it under running water...this softens the paper and makes the ink run, creating a unique watercolor-sort of effect. Carefully un-crumple the flowers, shape them how you like and place on the paper towels to dry overnight. They don't look like much right now...but just wait.....

 

Once the flowers have dried, use a sponge and dapple ink over them to add a little more dimension. Now begin layering and shaping your flowers as desired, attaching them and any other stamped images you've created to the wooden letter with 3-D dots to add additional dimension. Add a bronze bitty brad for the bird's eye. Add sparkles to "vines/stems" if desired.

Here's a close-up view of the flowers, etc.:

Cut Cocoa grosgrain ribbon to desired length. Tie ends to the top of each side of the letter to form a hanging loop. Hang on a wall or door and enjoy!

Have a fun and safe weekend!