DIY Letter Decor

I've longed to make letter decor for awhile now, and the perfect opportunity arose when I threw my coworker and friend B a baby shower! I love it when my friends announce their baby name ahead of time because it enables me to go all-out in personalizing their baby gifts and baby shower decor. B chose the name Luke for her baby boy. 

It took Andrew a long while to guess what I made these letters from....cereal boxes! We kind of have a problem in our household, AKA consuming mass quantities of cereal--Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, and our favorite, Honey Bunches of Oats. In college I used to eat cereal for breakfast, afternoon snacks, and midnight snacks. Basically, we have tons of cereal boxes, and I finally found a way to upcycle them!

Read on for the full tutorial!


MATERIALS NEEDED

• 4-5 cereal boxes
• Scissors
• Flour, water, and a big bowl
• Newspaper cut into long strips
• Scotch Tape
• Paint (I used leftover wall paint) and a paintbrush

I started out by printing and tracing the letters onto the cereal boxes and cutting out each letter. I cut the letters so that the right side facing outwards doesn't have the bright orange and yellow Cheerios labels on it.



Cut out two of each letter as well as 2-inch rectangular strips. I used the sides of each cereal box to cut the rectangular strips. Tape the strips at a 90 degree angle to the flat letter shape, using Scotch tape to connect the rectangular strips to the bottom letter.

My Scotch tape masterpiece! 

This is when I started to get carried away with the letter combinations...Lulu Keke? 

This is Andrew's favorite photo because he walked into the front door while I was photographing this and he immediately started laughing. He then proceeded to ask me why I was making ukulele decor.

Next, place the duplicate letter onto the first letter. Tape into place with lots of Scotch tape.

All taped up! I felt a sad that I only had one set of the LUKE letters left to play around with.

To make the letters sturdier, I used the timeless method of paper mache.

Mix together about 2 cups of flour with 4 cups of water (1 part flour to 2 parts water). Stir well and mix until it's runny and lump-less. I added a bit more water to help it maintain a smooth consistency as I paper-mached the letters.

Dip each newspaper strip into the flour mixture, squeeze off excess water, and wrap each letter, leaving no corner uncovered. 

All covered up! Let dry for a few hours, or better yet, overnight. Test out the dryness the next morning by firmly tapping on the letter. It shouldn't bend or cave inwards. 

Finally, I painted the letters white (letting them dry in between each coat of paint) to cover up the newspaper colors. Since B and her hubby are UNC fans, I finished the paint with a minty Carolina Blue. As a loyal Duke fan, I didn't feel too bad going with a lighter blue this time because I do love all things colored mint.

The letters looked pretty cute on the gift table at B's baby shower! She later brought them home to decorate Luke's nursery. The irony of my painting them Carolina blue was that she later repainted them dark navy blue, closer to the Duke Blue color, to match her nursery colors. :) 

Final price of creating these letters: zero dollars because I already had everything I needed in my pantry! And now I feel completely justified in eating more cereal, so that I can make these letters again with the cereal boxes.