One craft Do It Yourself idea I had come across on Pinterest were card board letters decorated with Elmers Glue. I know crazy, right? I honestly didnt believe it and most of the pins showed afters, provided some explaination but since they were mostly links to Etsy accounts didn't provide much in the way of Before/After Pictures. Since I was sort of flying blind I decided to give it a try on a cardboard box to see if it could even work. What! So glad I practiced cause I definetely learned what not to do and made the final product so much easier. Flowers were not a good idea as the flue ran together.
The actual letters I went a little slower and went over the sections to remove excess glue, pop air bubbles and clean up the lines. As you can see with the E the glue dries clear. One other thing in my practice was I did one with a double coat and that was too much. I honestly didnt think that the texture would come through but it does.
It took a few days to finish the letters with glue since I wanted to do the sides and tops as well. With the glue running I did it in sections letting the glue set/dry in between.
I painted the letters with a spray can of flat white primer. Since I was going for a rough look I didn't want glossy. After the paint was dry I went over with a grey / sunbeached was the name. Since these are cardboard don't go heavy hand with the paint or the stain. I have seen some posts where the letters were covered in foil. Practiced that as well and I didn't care for how the foil looked when painted. This would solve the cardboard issue but just wasnt the look I was going for.
I did a matte verithane spray to protect them after everything was dried.
I really like the outcome and will be making these again. Have fun with your own project!
