I'm sharing with you THREE easy ways to decorate wooden letters for a nursery! This is a great project using inexpensive wooden initials that you can paint, emboss and Modge Podge scrapbooking paper.
I'm re-doing Ansley's nursery. Yep. I am. And Ryan (my hubby) said, "You should have found out [the gender] - then you wouldn't have had to re-do stuff" with a grin on his face.
Backstory: When I was pregnant with baby, I did not want to find out what the gender was. My reasoning (no offense to anyone else): there are too little suprises in life. Well, when I shared my thoughts with Ryan, he had a hissy fit. HE wanted to find out. I didn't. He was pretty...peeved. I told him this: "Since we're going on a trip to Maui (our "Babymoon"), how about we have the sonographer write it in an envelope - and we can open it when we go see the Haleakala sunrise?" He just shrugged.
At 18 weeks pregnant, we were on our way to the big ultrasound - the ultrasound to tell us whether baby was a boy or a girl. On our drive to the clinic, he would not even talk to me. We sat down at the registration desk, and even the secretary was like "man, he's not very social is he?" I said he's just mad we're not finding out.
We got into the ultrasound room, and the tech asked if we wanted to know. I asked her to write it in an envelope. Ryan watched the ultrasound in silence (I mean what a party pooper) unless he had a question for the sonographer.
We got home, and I confronted him. He made a big ordeal out of it - and I asked him why he wanted to know so bad. He said, "I just want to be prepared and do not like suprises. Plus, how are you going to decorate the baby room?" So, I said, "Fine. You can find out." I tore the envelope open, closed my eyes, and showed him. I then said, "Before I open my eyes, I want you to wipe off any reaction off of your face so that I can't guess what it is." And that's why Ryan decided to find out.
Ryan was sort of right in a way. He knew that I would be re-doing the room after I found out whether baby was a boy or a girl.
Ansley's nursery WAS decorated in neutral yellow, green, and ivory with lambs and ducks. Kim from work gave me the bedding set (THANK YOU), but now it will be handed it down to my cousin Lisa (who is also pregnant, yey!) to use for her baby.
Monday, I went to Babies R Us, and got a pretty sweet deal on some GIRL nursery bedding.
Anyway, now that I didn't have anything for the walls before that was specific to baby, I wanted to buy some nursery wall decor. I looked at USA Baby, and it was like $10+ per letter. I mean, what if I had named her "Stephanie" - that's a lot of moo-lah. So, then I went to Etsy. I love Etsy. I searched for "Wooden Nursery Letters". I found the same expensive pricing for pre-made wooden letters, but I will say they were more creative and cute. So, I decided to DIY my own nursery letters.
Table of Contents
Ways to Decorate Wooden Nursery Letters
There are three ways to make and decorate homemade nursery letters:
- Straight up painting them
- Modge Podge scrapbooking paper to the letters
- Use an embossing heating gun for stamped decor on the letters
Instructions for Painting Wooden Nursery Letters
Supplies for Painting the Letters
Hobby Lobby usually has a sale every other week on this for half off. Hobby Lobby has wooden letters, white painted letters (these are the ones I used), whimsical wooden letters, and chipboard letters. You can use any of these. Wal-Mart also carries these letters for 0.97 each, but they are only 3 inches tall and usually don't carry all the letters you need. Wal-Mart carries the letters that have "dots" on the end of the edge of each letter if you like that style. Jo-Ann fabrics also have them.
Wooden Hobby Lobby Letters buy here - $2.99*
acrylic paint set with clear acrylic as well
nursery ribbon
wax paper or underlayment that it can dry on so it won't stick
distress ink pad
STEP 1 // SAND IF NEEDED
If you using wooden letters, sand them down so they have a smooth finish. Then wipe away the dust completely. For chipboard, white lettering, or cardboard letters, you can obviously skip this step.
STEP 2 // PAINT
Layout the wax paper on your table. Use the acrylic paint to paint the edges of the letters first.
Lay it down to dry on the wax paper. You'll have to add about 4 coats for a good cover and wait a couple hours between each coat for it to dry.
STEP 3 // PAINT CLEAR ACRYLIC
Use clear acrylic to add a protection of layer to the paint!
STEP 7 // ATTACH RIBBON TO WOODEN DECORATED LETTERS
Cut the length of your ribbon to the length you want it. Use a staple gun to adhere it to the back of the letter. Make sure you secure it tight especially if it is going to be hanging over a crib!
Instructions for Using Modge Podge Scrapbook Paper for Wooden Nursery Letters
Supplies for Modge Podge Wooden Letters for Nursery
Wooden Hobby Lobby Letters buy here - $2.99*
acrylic paint set
Modge Podge
nursery ribbon
craft razors
craft paint roller
Sponge Brush
wax paper
distress ink pad
nursery scrapbooking paper x 1 for each letter
STEP 1 // SAND
If you using wooden letters, sand them down so they have a smooth finish. Then wipe away the dust completely. For chipboard, white lettering, or cardboard letters - skip this step for now.
STEP 2 // MODGE PODGE A THIN LAYER ON
Dip your paint brush into the modge podge, and paint the front side of the letters.
Put your scrapbooking paper wrong side up, and now stick the letter onto the scrapbook paper. Wait for the Modge Podge to dry on the letter.
Ignore my cats in this photo, but do you see how I laid out the letters on top of the scrapbooking paper?
STEP 3 // XACTO KNIFE
After the letter/scrapbook paper dries - turn it face down...and cut along the edge of the letter.
STEP 4 // INKED EDGES
Now, take your stamp, then ink the edges of the letters by gently rubbing it towards the letter. Let it dry.
STEP 5 // MODGE PODGE AGAIN
Now Modge Podge the front for extra protection.
STEP 6 // ATTACH RIBBON TO WOODEN DECORATED LETTERS
Cut the length of your ribbon to the length you want it. Use a staple gun to adhere it to the back of the letter.
Instructions for Embossing Wooden Letters from Hobby Lobby
Of all the ways to decorate the nursery letters, this was my favorite.
Supplies for Modge Podge Wooden Letters for Nursery
Wooden Letters from Amazon- 2.99
Acrylic Paint - 0.99
Emobossing Heating Gun - 19.97
Embossing Powder - 4.99
Embossing Stamp Pad - 4.47
Stamps- 4.97
STEP 1 // SAND
If you using wooden letters, sand them down so they have a smooth finish. Then wipe away the dust completely with a damp cloth.
For chipboard, white lettering, or cardboard letters - skip this step because you won't need to do this.
STEP 2 // PAINT BACKGROUND COLOR
Before you start painting, layout the wax paper so that you won't have to move the letters afterwards.
Start with the backside first, then paint the front side.
You'll have to add about 4 coats for a good cover - wait a couple hours between each coat for it to dry.
STEP 3 // STAMP
Stamp the wooden letters using the embossing stamp pad with the design you chose. Then put the powder over the area you stamped - then blow/knock off the remaining embossing powder.
STEP 4 // HEAT THE LETTERS UP
Use the embossing heating gun and go over the wet stamped area that you just stamped on. Don't stay in one particular area too long as you go across each letter.
I loved the way these nursery letters turned out. I know that this is a bad photo, but wanted to give you a close up of one of the letters and the bedding so you could see that it matched better than the Modge Podge.
STEP 5 // ATTACH RIBBON TO EMBOSSED LETTERS
Cut the length of your ribbon to the length you want it. Use a staple gun to adhere it to the back of the letter.
That's it! You DIY nursery letters - and saved money. In my case, I saved about $60 even with two tries!
Check out this Baby Nurse Checklist Guide for more ideas!
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