Wednesday, June 5, 2013

DIY Cardboard Letter

Here I am with the second of the two DIY gifts I gave to my nephew for his 6th birthday. (don't worry he got things he can play with and read too!)

This idea was actually something I saw on Pinterest back quite a while ago here and it seemed like a genius idea. Taking nothing but cardboard, dixie cups, and some hot glue and turning it into those awesome 3D letters. 


I started out with just that- cardboard, cups, hot glue plus some mod podge and paper, oh yea and duct tape. Going to go out on a limb and show you the fail that then led to this win. Sorry in advance for the dark photos. I didn't have a ton of time to mess with everything when I was doing this project, but wanted to document the how-to along the way. 

 I don't have a picture of me cutting out the A's, I feel like it would have been pretty pathetic. Just sayin. Anyway, once the A's were cut, I began to glue cups to the "wrong" side of one.

I really had to get creative and mold/manipulate cups as the letter got more narrow and the whole cup wouldn't fit. Just do whatever you need to to make it work :)



Just a weird side view once both sides were glued to the cups. This is harder than it looks. I mean it is easy, but definitely not as easy as you'd think. Again, manipulate, whatever/however you need to to get them mostly lined up. 

"birds-eye view??" Ok, I tried. 

The next biggest part was filling in the sides and inner parts with more cardboard so the cup portions weren't just open. Next I tried to mod podge scrapbook paper onto the A and make it all cutesy and stuff. I say try because....


I could have potentially made this work, but lets face it. I didn't have a ton of time and my letter was bigger than 12x12 scrapbook paper could accommodate which is just more evidence that I am spatially STUPID  impaired. After my fail, I went to the fun Five Below and picked up these rockin rolls of duct tape.


Which I meticulously (seriously...) wrapped around this cardboard shape. I didn't time myself but it felt like it took forever and a day. Again, lack of spatial thinking. 


Either way, there you have it. 


Now, you can tie ribbon through and use a hook to put on the child's door. My sister happens to be moving in the next few months, so we will do that at the new house!!









1 comments:

Maria said... [Reply]

I love love love this. that tape is so much fun!! <3<3<3