Shabby Christmas Letters - On the cheap! A DIY!

A few weeks back, I saw some darling letters spelling out "JOY" for Christmas Decor. I saw them from far away, so I didn't get to inspect them closely for details on making them, but I decided to wing it. I started out buying chipboard letters at our local Arts & Crafts store. I also bought different Christmas scrapbook paper (each piece big enough to trace a letter on), and a tiny tube of silver glitter, and that was it (just because I'm a sucker for all things shiny at Christmas). You'll also need modge podge, or something similar, which I already had.

I started tracing each letter on the paper and cutting them out. I then used modge podge to glue the cutouts to the letters. Be careful here to use a VERY thin layer of glue, or the paper will bubble. Mine bubbled a bit, but I have them up high and no one will ever notice. :)

The modge podge dries very quickly, so as soon as it was dry, I used scrapbook ink (I used brown) to distress all of the edges. You can do this as heavy as you like - I went heavy since I wanted to be see it from far away.

Once the ink dried (again, super quick), I modge podged over the top of the letters to seal it and give it a nice finish. Yeah, I know. Bubbles. Pretend you don't see them. :)

Last, I painted a little more modge podge on each of the letter edges and dipped them in the glitter. You really can't see much of this where they are displayed, but it gives them a finished look and a little extra sparkle. :)

Total cost -

Letters - $4 for 4

Scrapbook paper - $2.50 for 4 sheets

Glitter - $1.50

$8 total

And the finished product - I love it!