Family Initial Wall

I’ve been wanting to an initial project for a long time – but there are so many great projects out there – I just couldn’t decide what to do. Then I came up with the idea to make four – a personal initial for each of us!

Want to see what they look like?

I have a mini tutorial for each of these. I didn’t go into tons of detail since there were 4 letters, 5 if you count the “M”, and I didn’t want to set any Long Post records. :)

Here’s a supply list for what I did – but you could use any materials that would be personal to you.

• Letters – Mine were metal, wood, chipboard and MDF – I got them at Hobby Lobby
• Paint
• Magazine images
• Fabric and . . . wait for it . . . Ric rac
• Black Grosgrain Ribbon
• Book pages and buttons
• Elmers or Mod Podge, Hot Glue

Let’s start with the painted letters. I painted the D (chipboard) a light blue and the R (wood) a light green.

The D is for Mr. F.T. (don’t worry, it will get more manly) and the R is for my daughter.

Once the paint on the D dried I used black paint and a dry brush to give it a wooden, antiqued look. Just put paint on the brush and wipe most of it off on a paper towel, then brush it lightly over the surface.

Hit the edges a little harder, and make sure you do the sides.

For the green “R” I wanted to do some brown polka dots. I used the bottom of one of my paintbrushes, dipped it in the paint and pressed it onto the letter.

Space the polka dots over the letter, with some of them off the edges so you’re not just running polka dots down the center of the letter.

Our daughter is an avid book worm – so to dress up her letter I made a little book flower. I cut two flower shapes out of a book page and burned the edges just a bit. Then I pinched and folded the centers a little and sewed them together.

I glued two buttons on top of each other and glued the flower to the top corner of the R.

The J (made from MDF) is for my son – who loves video games. So I raided his Game Informer magazines, with his permission ;) , and cut out a few images of his favorite games.

I brushed Elmer’s on (I’m out of Mod Podge) and then placed the images on the J, like a collage. I clipped the sides all around the curves and glued them down as well.

I covered the top with Elmer’s and let it dry.

I don’t have a good picture for you but I covered the sides with black 1/2″ grosgrain ribbon to cover up all those uneven ends. I hot glued that down since it was faster.

For mine(the metal “B”) I debated leaving it black but I wanted to dress it up a little. I decided to use this great flamingo fabric I found at the Long Beach Quilt Fair.

I traced the B on the back of the fabric.

I cut out the B and started hot gluing the fabric on. I clipped around all the curves so they would look smooth.

I thought it needed a little something else so I glued pink ric rac around the outer edge. Shocking I know.

(I am obviously not a tidy gluer.)

I tied ric rac to the metal loop at the top for the hanger.

I added several M’s to our photo wall, but I only made one of them, the rest were store bought. For this one I painted it black and then stamped it with 2 stamps in cream paint. The first one is a lettering stamp and the second is a Fleur de lys that I placed off center. I think it looks like a big bow – I’m not sure if  I’ll leave it or not.

So here they all are again. I realize these tutorials were all pretty brief – If you have any questions let me know.

The home for these little cuties is on the wall at the halfway point of our stairs. We have some photos there – an assortment of us traveling, on roller coasters, in Wanted posters, general silliness. I really love how they dress up the photos and make the whole collection more personal.

And more shots for you so you can see them better and because I tend to take a million pictures of projects. :)

What do you think? I think I need more “M’s”.

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