I thought I would give a quick tutorial on the blocks I made for Julia's cake Table. They say "Forever." I love making this kind of thing and the project is so versatile. Read through everything first to make sure you have everything you need.
What you need:
*Unfinished wood - step 2
* Scrapbook paper - step 3
*Paint - step 3
*Embellishments - Step 4
* Mod Podge - matte
* Hot Glue Gun
*Sandpaper if wood is a little rough and a damp cloth to wipe down after sanding.
Prep:
1. Choose what you want to say... *Ex. Family, Love, Laughter, Adore, Kisses, Cookies, Together, Spring, Your Last Name...etc.
2. Choose blocks, small plaques or long plaques that will be large enough to have the entire word. Ex. For Julia's Forever I used One Small Plaque for the "F" and 6 small cubes for the "orever." And a long plaque to set them on. Just Mix it up.
3. Choose your color Scheme. For this project it was blue, orange and ivory. Then pick the paint, and 2 to 3 types of coordinating scrapbook paper in your scheme. I usually used 3. You will see in the picture examples I post. I did ivory paint (white with a hint of beige). For the paper I chose orange with ivory polka dots, blue watercolor looking with leaves, and a dark blue for the words.
4. If you are going to embellish it, choose the embellishments...ex. sticky gems (I used sticker pearls for Julia's), buttons, flat ribbon, scrapbook paper cutouts...etc.
5. Create or find the font you want to use, I usually do it free hand but feel free to choose a font from a word doc.
TO BEGIN...
5. Sand the wood if needed and wipe with a damp cloth. Let dry.
6. Cut the background scrapbook paper you are going to use. I like to make it just smaller than the front surface I will be covering. lay it on top of the wood to make sure it fits and is the right shape and size.
7. Paint all the wood. You may need 2 coats depending on the coverage of the paint and the color. Let dry completely.
8. Draw or trace the letters backward onto the back of your coordinating paper. Cuts out and trim as needed.
9. Using modge podge, paste the back of each background paper and stick onto the wood. Do the same with the letters.
10. When this is dry, mOdge podge two coats over the whole thing, allowing to dry between coats. Also, make sure your brush strokes are even and in the same direction so the texture look uniform when dry.
11. The last step is adding your embellishments. I like to use a glue gun because o the ease of use.
12. Step back and admire your work!
