Tired of the same ol’ square framed art? Having trouble finding a piece that “ties the whole room together”? Have no fear. Check out this funky art piece I made with simple wooden rectangles. The best part is that you can customize it to say anything you want, making it a perfect addition for any room.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
–Enough wood rectangles to spell whatever words you’d like. For this piece, you’ll need 22 rectangles (I bought Lara’s Crafts Unfinished Wood Rectangles. They come in a green package and have a heart saying “Lara’s Crafts” in the upper left corner. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby, but you can find them at any craft store).
–Black paint
–Paint brush
–Letter stencils (or a very steady hand!)
–Felt
–Hot Glue Gun
–Hooks/Nails/Hammer
1. After you’ve decided what words you want to create in your Scrabble art piece, stencil the letters on your wood rectangles. You can buy letter stencils at the store or make your own by cutting out letters and tracing them on your rectangles. If you have a steady hand, try drawing it on yourself. Use a pencil before filling in the letters with paint. Let dry for at least 24 hours.
2. Once your rectangles are dry, lay them out in the arrangement you want. Turn them all over so the painted side is face down (you’re now looking at the backside of the arrangement).
3. Cut your felt strips about 4 inches wide and 3-4 inches long. Use your glue gun to place one strip of glue on one rectangle and another on the rectangle right next to, above, or below it and then place a felt strip down so it reaches both glue strips and holds the two rectangles together. Repeat until every rectangle is joined to all the rectangles surrounding it. See this VISUAL.
4. As for hanging it, I found the easiest way to go about it was to hammer small nails between the rectangles, through the felt stripping. Look for nails with a small head and hammer them between the weak areas of the piece. See below (the green circles are where I hammered nails to attach the piece to the wall).
You can also try hanging it with picture hanging hooks (see below). This was my first idea but I found that the hooks were too weak to hold the piece. I left them up and hammered the nails between the rectangles and I can guarantee that thing isn’t going anywhere! 🙂
Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.
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