Monday, August 10, 2015

DIY letter blocks from makewells



Hello! It's Megan from Makewells once again and I'm here with a super fun decor project, DIY Letter Blocks!
I'm constantly changing up the decor around my house, so this is a fun way to add a pop of color and easily switch out a word or phrase. 
First, I cut my wooden cubes. I made them 3" because I had a 3" x 3" piece of cypress wood on hand. If you don't have tools handy, you can find wooden blocks online in just about every size imaginable. 

After giving the blocks a nice sand, I used acrylic based paint to block in colors on each side. Because I skipped on priming the wood first, I had to use a couple coats on each side. I like to jump in with color right away, but if you aren't a step skipper like, go ahead and slap a primer on there. 

I wasn't too concerned about perfect edges, because I knew I was going to sand those back down eventually. So, if you're a perfectionist, I apologize for those sloppy edges!
Next, I lightly drew letters on every side using a pencil. My only organization of this was to do 3 blocks with all vowels and the rest mixing up the consonants. I had a few words in mind that I wanted to make sure I could spell out when finished, so I planned accordingly. 

And then I painted my letters! I mixed up the colors I used, and of course added some bold drop shadows to make them really stand out. 

Once each block was completed, I went back with the sand paper and sanded down all the edges again. 

To give my blocks an aged look, I used one of my favorite crafting products: Tim Holtz Distress Stains. These come in a ton of colors and for smaller projects make staining super easy and not as stinky or messy. 



I then used another favorite product: Annie Sloan soft clear wax. This stuff is pricey, but I just love using it on wood projects. After rubbing it in, I very gently re-sanded the blocks. It gives the wood a really nice, velvet-y feel. But if you don't want to splurge, just use some mod podge or any acrylic sealer.

Once dry, I had a great set of blocks to play decorate with! 



Have fun creating everyone!

You can check out all of my lettering posts HERE and don't forget to share your progress using #redefinecreativelettering. 

Xo, Megan
@Makewells (instagram)

3 comments:

Mrs. Kelley Dibble said...

These are so cute!

P.S. Your post title calls these "Letter Blacks." Is that a typo?

Kelley~

Creative Khadija said...

Super cute :)

Crooked Feather Studio said...

I love these! For my son's 3rd birthday I made him architectural painted blocks that he loved to build houses with maybe I will try these for my daughter... or me.. Thank you!

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