DIY 3-D Decorative Letter

 I hate spending money on decorations!  I don't know how many times I have mentioned that, but I just cringe when I look at the prices on many home decorating items.  

Now, don't get me wrong, if I had unlimited funds, I would probably go out and buy everything Micheal's, Hobby Lobby, and that beautiful boutique down the street have to offer, but who has access to that kind of money, huh?  Ok, I can think of a few people, but that's not the point.  

For us little people, what are we supposed to do to make our homes feel like home?  Three simple little words:  Do. It. Yourself.  Yeah baby!  I love DIY projects.  

We had all these random boxes lying around, and I was having a hard time justifying throwing such nice boxes away (can you say "Hoarders!").  Lucky for me, lightning struck my brain, and I came up with this craft idea.  I have been wanting a big "R" for our wall, but have had the hardest time finding one that was big enough.  And then if I did, it was WAY more expensive than I wanted it to be.  So, I decided to make one... and here's what I did.

All you need for this project is:

cardboard boxes
razor blade
glue
jute twine


Step-By-Step Process

-  Free hand or print off any letter of your choice and transfer it to a piece of cardboard.  Make sure it is the size that you want.  Mine was about 1.5 feet tall, and completely free handed.

-  Cut out letter.  Using cut out letter as a stencil, trace additional letters on your cardboard boxes.

Here is my stencil, and some of the tracing. 

-  Cut out each additional letter.  *Be careful not to cut your carpet, or table...!*

-  Stack letters and glue together.  Clamp or place some heavy books on the letters while they dry.

After lots of cutting (and lots of mess in my living room), here are all the layers glues together.  It took 9 letters to get to my desired thickness of just over 1 inch.

-  When glue is dry, wrap with jute twine until entire letter is covered.  This step may take some time, so put on your favorite movie and wrap away!  

  
The final cost for this entire project was about $7, and that includes the silk flowers.  Not too shabby for a custom 1 1/2 foot tall 3D letter.



Have you completed this project?  Let me know how it went!