Quick craft: letter decor

These past couple of years I've been making some pieces of furniture, mostly bookcases, to fill up my indoor photo scenes. I have quite a few pieces to alternate now, but it turns out I don't have many props to fill them, and they sometimes look quite empty. So I thought I could start making smaller props to fill my shelves with and add more realism to my dioramas. 

Today we're making some "letter decor" (I can't think of a better name) using some wooden letters. I found them at a store called Tedi and I believe they're meant for scrapbooking, but they're the perfect size for fashion dolls. It's quite a simple craft, so that's why I'm going to show you two different designs. 

For this craft you will need:

• Small wooden letters for scrapbooking.
• Popsicle sticks and/or wooden coffee stirrers.
• Craft paint.
• White glue or hot glue.
• Scissors or a cutter. 

Let's start with the easiest design, that was actually the one I did last. I picked up letters to write the word "Home". You can write whatever you want, but short words will work better.

I painted mine using the color Sea Glass by Americana Acrylics because I want a pop of color, but I still want it to be subtle. If you like the bare wood look, you can leave it just like that. 

While the letters dry, I cut a popsicle stick to use as a base. The size will depend on the size of your letters and the spacing you want to give them, but around 6 cm should be fine. I cut it using a cutter instead of scissors to get a sharper edge.

After sanding the edges a bit, I painted it using some white acrylic paint.

Once everything has dried down, glue the letters in place using hot glue or white glue. I would suggest planning out the space beforehand. I put some masking tape here and there to help me with the spacing. 

And this is the final result. I'm aware it's nothing groundbreaking, and I'm not the first to make something like this, but I wanted to give it a go for quite some time. 

Now let's move on to the second design. It requires a bit more work, but it's still very simple. We're going to create a wooden base to stick our letters to. I start by aligning 6 wooden coffee stirrers and measuring the size I want them to be. I ended up making two, one was 6,5 cm (2,56 inches) and the other was 8 cm (3,15 inches). I ended up using the smaller one for the design, even though the one you will see on the photos is the big one. 

Cut out the sticks to your desired size.

Measure, cut and glue two pieces of sticks going across, to hold everything together.  Make sure these pieces are slightly smaller, so they won't show up when we flip it. 

Once everything dries down, it's time to paint. I chose to stain it using the same water base stain I used for my wooden floor. If you don't have any stain at home, you can create the same effect with acrylic paint, like I showed on the crate console post. 

While the stain/paint dries down, I painted the letters using white acrylic paint. This time I want the sign to say "Fall", but you can choose any other word you want. 

Once everything has dried down, it's time to glue it in place using white glue. Again, I'm using some masking tape to help me keep the letters aligned. Take your time doing this and don't rush it.

And, here is the result. 

Let's take some photos with the new signs. First, let's try "Home". I used the matching Sea Glass  wall to see how it would look. It adds a subtle touch that at first found too subtle, because I made the "fall" one first. But after taking some photos with it, I quite like it.

It does pop out more against the Dove Grey bookshelf than against the white one. 

Let's move on to the "Fall" one. In this photo, I used a new wall that I made in the color Light Buttermilk. 

I love the warmth the overall scene has. I also like the fact that it matches the floor.

Here I tried it on the Blush pink wall. I sticked it on the wall using poster putty, to try something different.

I think this is a quick and easy idea to make some decor for your dioramas. I'm planning to make "Xmas" one using the same method I used for the Fall sign. There are also many more variants you can make using this idea. For example, you can make an "L" shape with a popsicle stick and use the letters to make bookends.

At some point while working on this post, I found these wooden stars at a decor store called Casa. They're meant to be to spread on the table, but since they're wooden they could work just as fine as the letters. 

I have future plans to make other "small decor" items. A while back I printed some miniature books, but I haven't bought the craft foam I need to make them. I would also love to make a snake plant to add a pop of green to the shelves. I also have an idea for a couch, but that will take me a bit longer to do. Anyway, I don't think I'll have time to make those before the year ends, so those will be my 2022 projects. I much rather finish a wainscot I'm working on and start working on some Christmas photos. 

In other news, I've been trying to resurrect my Facebook page. I know some of you aren't active over there, but if you are, I would appreciate if you liked my page. If you do so, make sure to also like and/or comment a couple of my latest post, that way you will see my updates on your feed. 

I hope you're all doing well. Let me know in the comments if you're planning to do something similar for your dolls. I don't know if I'll manage to get another post up before the Holiday season, but if not, I'll see you in December.

Monster Crafts. 

Note: The wall on the very first photo is also a new wall in the color Light Mocha, by Americana Acrylics.