DIY: Cardboard Letters for Home Office {My Home}

I am in the midst of organizing and re-designing my home office.  I think at this point, it will be a never-ending project.  It seems there is always something to be organized or rearranged.  And then as soon as I think I have it the way I want, I do some kind of craft project in my office and it is a crazy mess again!  Oh well!  That is what the space is supposed to be for!

You can see more of how I started organizing my office here!

I showed you a sneak peek of how I added signage to my office to claim my space in this post.  I just thought it would be really fun to add my brand to my space and to have my company name posted in my office. 

There are SO many amazing home office design ideas I have seen.  See my JSD Office Pinterest Board for more inspiration.  Some people have some crazy awesome craft rooms that I will probably never have, but they are really fun to look at!  I have always loved this home office design from JDS Designs out of Texas.  Jenna transformed a spare bedroom of her home into a home office.  Perfection!  

via Houzz.com

 

I purchased these cardboard letters "JSD" for Jessica Stout Design from Hobby Lobby.  They are about 9" in height.  They were about $2 a piece full price or you could wait until they are 50% off because we all know Hobby Lobby has 50% off sales ALL the time.  I used these same cardboard letters for my niece's 1st Birthday Party too!  They are awesome for lots of different craft and decorating projects. 

I knew I wanted to hang these on the wall above my window.  They come as a basic brown cardboard color, so I really wanted to decorate them and make them look a little prettier.  I like the plain brown look for a more rustic, natural space, but that's not the look I was going for.  I thought about just spray painting them black, but I needed a little pizzazz than that.  So I decided to cover them with 3 different scrapbook papers to give each a unique look.  

But first I need to spray paint them!  The scrapbook paper only gets glued to the front side.  Which means the sides are still visible.  A quick shot of spray paint would fix that.   So what are the push pins for?!?!

The push pins are a trick I learned on Pinterest that actually works really well! The push pins lift the letters off of the ground just enough to be able to get all sides of the letters sprayed with paint and they won't end up sticking to the ground or whatever you are spraying on.  

Since the tops would be covered with scrapbook paper, I wasn't too worried about getting a nice even coat of spray paint on that area, just the sides. 

Luckily the weather was really nice this week when I spray painted, so it literally dried in like 10 minutes!  I think my neighbors think I'm crazy because I am always outside spray painting in my not-so-big "driveway."

Next is covering the tops with scrapbook paper!  These are the three I chose for my design. 

Just trace the letter onto the right-side of the scrapbook paper with a pencil.  If you have a straight edge on your letter, put that end right on the edge of the paper.  Just one less edge to have to cut!

Once all of the letters are cut out of the scrapbook paper, it is time to glue!

I used a homemade Modge Podge to glue the paper on the letters because it is easy to just spread over the letter and you want to be sure all of the corners and edges get enough glue for the paper to stick to.  You don't want the corners peeling up.  My Modge Podge is equal parts Elmer's glue and water.  Just half and half and poured into a recycled glass salad dressing container actually.  Yes, just watered down glue, basically!  I have been using it for almost a year now and it still stays mixed and gluey!!

I spread the glue on with a mini sponge brush.  Most Modge Podge crafts have you paint the top with glue as well.  But for this project I didn't do that.  I have found that doing that with black and white scrapbook paper sometimes makes the black areas smear.  And I really didn't want that glossy look that Modge Podge gives.

I used a super heavy double-sided adhesive to hang the letters on the wall.  I will probably regret that decision the day we are moving and I peel down the entire wall with the letters, but for now, it was just so much easier that way! 

It was a super easy project.  And if I ever get tired of the black and white scrapbook paper patterns, I could easily just remove it or even put another piece of scrapbook paper over it for an entirely new look.  I love this idea for lots of rooms -- bathroom spelling out "BATH", guest room spelling out "GUEST", or a nursery spelling out babies name! 

UPDATE!! 

In this post, as I mentioned before, I talked about some products I use to organize items in my office.  I mentioned how I ordered new baskets and new hangers for the closet.  Well they arrived much quicker than I expected!  And these wire baskets -- OMG! 

 

Yes, that's right, ONLY $10 from Wal*Mart.  I'm not one to usually shop at Wal*Mart.  But when I came across these from another blogger on Pinterest, I HAD to buy these!  I actually bought these online, just so I didn't have to go into a Wal*Mart! 

 

These wire baskets are pretty amazing for a couple of reasons.  They fit in my IKEA bookcases perfectly!  They come with this snap on canvas tote inside to hold all your goodies! AND, it comes with this little black label on the front of the basket to label the bin with chalk.  It is really just a piece of metal painted black than a chalkboard, but chalk writes just fine on it.  And it wiped off easily! Such a good find!

Something about matching hangers in a closet just makes it look so much more tidy and organized.  I also ordered these from Wal*Mart so that I could get free shipping on the wire baskets!

 
My office is slowly but surely coming together to look like a designed space, that is functional and beautiful at the same time!! 

This was my VERY FIRST INSPIRATION IMAGE for my office that I came across back in Better Homes & Gardens January 2011 issue.  I always loved this office and wanted one just like it!