X-Press It Creator Project ~ Birthday Decoration ~ ONE!

Hi Scrappers,

Morgyn here sharing my latest crafty project with you.  My little man is turning one in a few weeks so I thought I should get a crack on making some decorations for his party.  As soon as I saw the gold leaf in my X-Press It creator box I knew exactly what I wanted to make.

I got all my supplies ready (I will lave a supply list at the bottom).  I used Word to make the word ONE in really large letters, each letter was  about 65%  of an A4 page.  I printed them, then cut out each shape to use as my templates.  Next step was to cut the templates from cardboard (I used some old packaging, cereal boxes etc). 



Once I had those cut out I also cut some strips of cardboard at 1.5 inches in width, I scored each side at 1cm to create two folds in each strip.  These were going to form the sides of my letters.  I attached some X-Press It high tack double sided tape to each edge of the strips.

Now came the tricky part, attaching the side to the letter front/back.  I snipped little cuts in the parts that were going to form the corners and rounded parts of the O, these gave the cardboard some more flexibility to bend around.  I stuck down all of the edges to the back of the letter before sticking the top part on (this worked out the easiest way).

Once each of my letters were made I applied a layer of Gesso to the whole thing. 1. to cover up an blemishes/printing on the cardboard and 2. to give the paint/glue something to stick to.

Once the Gesso was fully dry (I may have used my heat gun to speed it up a little) I got out my paints and brushes (from my X-Press It creator kit - they are really nice brushes to use). I mixed together some teal, blue and white paint to make a colour to match some other decorations I am using. Then I masked off parts of the letter and painted them teal, re-masked and painted a black strip as well.

Now the fun really begins!  Adding the gold foil, now I'll be honest this wasn't as easy as I thought it would be but after a few test pieces and a fair bit of mess I got into a bit of a rythem and by the 3rd letter it was going on (almost) perfectly.

The finished result!

I really love how these came together, the hardest part was all the cutting at folding in the beginning.  But it was totally worth it to have this neat handmade sign for his 1st birthday.

Thanks for stopping by

Morgyn xx

List of supplies
~ Microsoft Word, printer, paper, scissors, paint brushes and old cereal boxes
~ X-Press It Gold Leaf
~ X-Press It Double sided tape
~ X-Press It Masking tape
~ X-Press It Gold size glue
~ Dylusions paint; Polished Jade, After Midnight, White Linen and Black Marble
~ Studio Heavy Gesso