XOXO Floral Letters

Hey Everyone!  It's Valentine's Week here at Crafty Echo! For my Valentine's mantel this year I envisioned these cute little floral letters that said "XOXO".  I ventured with my little girl to Michaels to not find what I was looking for, of course.  But what we did find was some cute little flowers for the letters, more on that later.  Since we didn't find the letters we needed, it was up to me to make them, ugh.  If you're going to do this try finding some paper mache letters, pre-bought/pre-made.  It's so much easier!  Here's how I did it.

First I started out with some foam board.  I traced letters I had printed out from my computer in the Keep Calm font in size 500 onto my foam board.

Then it was time to cut it out.  That was what was most of the pain.  I used a serrated knife to cut them out, no fun!  Then I cut 1 inch strips of foam board to be the sides.  Once everything was cut out I took the 1 inch strips and hot glued them to the letters.  Like this...

Since the glue hardens pretty quickly, I just held it in place a little bit until I could continue on with more of it.  With the "X" you'll need to cut the side pieces into smaller pieces.  Measure them and then cut them, and then glue them into place.  For the "O", you want to pre-curl the 1 inch strips so you can glue them into place.  Once you come to a seam glue it together.

 

What is that black stuff on my finger?  Who knows.  Taking pictures of my hands makes me realize how much like my mom's they are.  Love my mom!

Anyways, when the letters are done, here's what they should look like.

They don't look so good now, but just wait.  Next is time to paint.  I chose to paint them pink, but you can paint them whatever color you want.  Don't forget to paint the edges!

Next up is the Styrofoam.  Trace the same letters you used in the beginning onto the Styrofoam with a sharpie.

Then start cutting them out.  Please please please be careful!  I wasn't thinking at one point and cut my finger really bad.  

I was bleeding for five minutes, almost fainted.  Probably needed stitches, but I work in the medical field, so I'm kind of stubborn when it comes to those kinds of things.

When all the letters are filled with the Styrofoam this is what they'll look like.

Then comes the fun part, stuffing the letters.  I bought two types of flowers that I thought would go really well together.  They were on sale Buy One Get One.  I got two bundles each, so all together it was only $8 for 4 bundles.  When you're pushing in your flowers if you feel they're not sturdy enough you can hot glue them in.  I did for some of my leaves.

Stuff your letters to your hearts content.

And yep, I stuff flowers while dinner's cooking in the crockpot.  Gotta do what you've got to do.

Once they're all stuffed you're all done...

And there you have it, a cute little decoration for anywhere in your house.

Have fun!