I've had these two huge cardboard letters from Joann Fabrics, forever. They're the initials of my little guys, but I couldn't decide on colors for them so they sat in the closet. I have another one, a "G" for our last name, that I bought ages ago and covered with moss (like every other blogger in the DIY world) and hung it in our dining room windows.
So when the spouse saw these other two in the closet, he panicked a little, I think he thought I was going to spell out the whole last name or something!
Anyway, the boys are getting a little older,(6 & almost 8)and they don't want anything else "little kiddish" added in their room. I decided to try to create a metal look, and this turned out to be the easiest craft project, no really, it is.
I had a can of this in the garage...
(no clue where it came from, but I have got to get more, for something else, just because.) Below you can see they started out cardboard.
I gave them a dusting, just a light spray. I think this paint could be almost mirror-like if applied heavily, and that's not the look I was going for. Turns out, the way the cardboard absorbed the paint, it looks galvanized. No added paint, or sponging on other colors needed. So that's it for the paint.
The letters also have areas where you can see it was pieced together, I think that's why I never painted them, I knew it would show. Now, it looks like the "metal" is soldered together.
To make it a bit more realistic, I went back, (5 min after I spray painted it-impatient) and pushed furniture nails into varied spots, concentrating on the "seams" just like industrial metal. Click these pics to see them larger, and the way it really does look like it's galvanized.
I used a dab of metallic silver craft paint to cover over each of the shiny nail heads, if you add them before spray painting you could skip this step.
To hang them up, I just hot glued craft wire to the back.
The camera just can't capture how "metal-like" this turned out, but trust me it's great and the first step closer to big boyin' this little pirate room!
Oh, and the ampersand or the "&" I bought once-upon-a-time at Target on clearance, because I knew I could use it someday.
Thanks for looking!