In this tutorial I am going to be finishing the “gold” wood set. The supplies needed are: 5 sheets of
paper (1 glitter black, 1 glitter gold, and 3 green print), paint (black, desert sand, powder green) modge
podge, brushes, scissors, pen/pencil, black tulle, light green tulle, light green wire, gold ribbon, and gems
(I used light green)
The first step is to sand any rough edges in the wood
.
Next you want to paint the back and the sides of your wood. It is not necessary to paint the front as it
will be covered with paper. Let the paint dry.
Next you are going to trace your letters onto the corresponding paper. This can be done either before or
after you paint the wood. Lay your letter front side down onto the back of the paper and trace around
all of the edges.
With these letters, as with many, there are areas and corners that you are unable to fit a pencil in to
trace. On this letter, these are the two areas marked with the red arrows. In these instances trace in as
far as you can then leave the finer detailed tracing for the next step. Continue tracing the rest of your
letter and cut it out.
Lay the cut out letter on top of the wood with both fronts facing up and press down with your finger on
the areas that you were unable to trace. Press hard enough to get a good mark, but not hard enough to
tear the paper. This will leave an embossed marking that you can now finish tracing and cutting out. You
will need to use this technique with the letters G, L, and D.
When cutting the gold paper for the pot of gold make sure to leave some extra paper at the bottom for
the black paper to over lap onto. This will leave a more flawless seam.
Next we are going to modge podge the paper onto the wood. Use a light layer on both the paper and
the wood. Putting it on both will allow you to slide it into the correct place easier, and provides a better
bond between the two. Make sure to use a light layer on each. If the glue is too thick the paper will
bubble. Also, to prevent bubbles make sure to smooth the paper out really well.
We now have the paper glued onto all of the wood pieces and will do the edges.
As you can see in the next picture, the paper has a white edge around it. We are going to make the
paper blend better by painting/distressing the edges.
There are two ways we can do the edging. One is using an ink pad, which is what I will use on the G, L,
and D. The other way is using paint and a foam brush. This is the method I am using for the pot of gold.
Dip your brush into a little bit of paint and blot off most of it. You will only want a little bit on the brush.
Brush it along the edges using either the same color as you used for the wood, or you can use any color
you want.
To distress the edges using an ink pad just lightly brush the pad on all sides of the letter. The harder you
press, the darker it will be. I typically use either brown or black when doing this. The paint brush
method was used on the pot using the same colors as the wood, and a black ink pad was used on the
green letter.
Now that we have all of the letters done, we will decorate them. This is the best part! You can do as
little, or as much as you would like. First I am going to do a bow on the letter D using tulle and ribbon.
Tie the tulle around the wood in a bow, fanning out the loops.
Next slip your ribbon underneath the bow and tie another bow on top. I like to clip the edges to prevent
fraying. You can also lightly melt the edges using a flame.
For the pot of gold we are going to use wire in our bow. The first step is to curl the wire. The
back of a paint brush works great for this. Curl each end leaving a smooth section in the center.
Tie the tulle around the pot including the wire in the knot.
Finish off your bow.
Add a second bow on top using the same technique as with the bow on the letter D. I
left the ends a little longer on this one.
Add some gems
.
And we’re done