Marquee letters

It was my man's birthday a week ago!  He's a big typography geek, and I made him marquee letters with his initials.

I was pretty smitten with this Craftster tutorial video, but then I saw these marquee letters and liked the backgrounds even better.  My sister pointed out to me the map used in one of the letters, and I had a map of Oregon (where we live) that was perfect (and free) for this project.

The Craftster tute goes into more details about prepping the letters, which I got from Joann.   I used a box cutter to start taking the front off, and I found that once I started it, I was able to just tear the rest away.  I kind of wanted it to look rough (I even tore the bottom left of the B and didn't fix it with anything, it's a pretty forgiving project if you don't take it too seriously).

Once I had the front of the letters off, I used them to trace out the map.  The B is made from the whole of Oregon and the J is made up of the Portland area (it was a double sided map with cities on one side, the whole state on the other).   I used Mod Podge to glue them in there.

I purchased these lights from Target for under $13 (I used one string for both letters, I had 2 light socket spots left over, but only one light since I busted one of the bulbs twisting it too tightly), making the whole project under $20.

Now, here is where I tell you to be careful when you're stringing the lights together letter to letter, the first time I did it I made it a BJ and that was just frustrating.  Also, if you take more time to cut off the excess paper before trying to screw the lights in, you won't accidentally break a light trying to get that sucker in there.

The way I cut holes for the lights was to use one of my Leatherman's poker tools, then shoved a screwdriver in the rest of the way and tore off some of the excess cardboard.  High tech!  Also I love my Leatherman tool, if he was a real man I would have run away with him when I was a teenager.

Fake scrapbooking: bound cards/letters

I reeeeeeeally hate scrapbooking.  You can get creative to the nth degree, and really, I've only recently (kind of) mastered not starting projects I have no intention of finishing.  My mom is really great at scrapbooking and has a whole collection of 12 4" binders filled with pictures and letters and cards and tickets to places.  They're incredible!  But my mom has always had a lot more patience (and drive) when it comes to those big projects.  The box I had post cards in is still strewn across the floor in Jesse's man cave from a week ago.  Go me!

Since I was 8, I've held on to post cards my brother sent me when he was in the military.  I've always wanted to do something with them, but scrapbooking was out because 1) I hated it, and 2) I didn't want to cover the front of the postcard.

I was intrigued when I saw this pin on Pinterest, of bound letters.  Then I saw this one, where she had made a collection of all different types of cards she had received.  What a great idea!

Tada!  I binded them together using some chipboard and metal rings!  Also, binded is not a real word.

I'm sure I'm missing a few of the postcards he sent me along the way, but I'm tickled I have this many.  My favorite is the one that folds out.  To fit it in there, I taped a couple pieces of scrap paper together (to strengthen it) and taped it to the card itself.

I also started sponsoring a kid through Compassion back when I was 16 up until the end of 2011.  I always loved receiving her letters (and her drawings!!).  After she left the program, I organized all her letters and shoved them in my files.  Not that great of a way to appreciate them.

When I went to the store to buy chipboard for the covers, I wanted to grab a pretty piece of paper to put on the cover, and I fell in love with one in particular.

It's washi paper, and was $2.  That's more than I'll normally spend on a piece of paper, but it was for something special.  I was nervous about mod podging it because it was so thin, but it was just fine.  I only did a layer on the chipboard, not one over the top as well.

I'm really happy with how they turned out!  I thought about putting labels on them, and I may with the postcards, but for now I only have the two and I'll know which is which.  I was also thinking of binding together cards we got from our wedding.

I ended up going to Collage for the art supplies (chip board, washi paper & metal rings).  It came to about $5, and I used scrapbook paper that I had on hand for the postcard book.