I've seen so many incredibly beautiful, colorful, creative, whimsical letters posted and so many good ideas for using them.
I've put together a few photos of ideas I've had.
Certainly a wall hanging comes to mind.
This one is a small 4 x 6 canvas from the local art store. I painted it with some acrylics, drilled two holes and threaded through a ribbon. My letters are stuck on with museum gel for a quick photo op, but terrifically tacky tape would work and is archival so will not damage your beadwork.
What you don't know is my second grand daughter's middle name is LOVE and her sisters middle name is JOY, so I have the perfect room decorations for them.
Another wall hanging, first I affixed the letters to hanging tags and strung a small ribbon through the hole. The hanger is a chair finial from a woodworking store that I beaded around. When I get around to finishing this I will likely bead some small loops on the underneath of the beaded finial for attachments points.
Granted if you're going to use a letter for a pendant or a monogram you might want one that has some relevance to you. E could stand for lots of things besides the first letter of a name. Make up something mysterious and wear it proudly! I just added a small bail and a nice chunky chain. You could of course bead a strap.
If you like to set a fancy table, napkin rings might be fun. Dinner for 4, each could have one letter of LOVE, dinner for 8, LOVE and HOPE.
This next set of ideas are not with the beaded letters themselves but with graphics you create with those letters. Lot's and Lot's of things you could do here.....Note cards, bookmarks, gift tags, business cards.
Here the lovebeadlove.blogspot.com business cards are doing double duty as a gift tag. You might choose to photo your own wonderful letters and have some cards made to share the love. I use overnight prints.com and have been happy with their quality and pricing but there are a lot of companies out there.
Another gift tag! They're very fun!
Here are Wendy Heitzman's letters done up as a bookmark. I used card stock, hole punched the top and threaded some ribbon through a fancy bead I had. You might also laminate it to make it a bit more sturdy.
While we're on the subject of bookmarks, Cynthia Newcomer Daniel took a large rubber band and affixed her letter with a jump ring to create another kind of bookmark.
Cyn Bicker printed the LOVE image on fabric and created these adorable project bags!
And in what is possibly the ultimate purse fob, Helena Tang Lim strung her elegant gold and silver love letters on a purse!
I've seen many other wonderful ideas from those who have participated in making the love letters. As time allows I'll share some more photos on the blog.
So I've presented a few ideas, but I know you'll come up with many more. Join us next week when we'll be celebrating more love with some wonderful projects from our members.
A sincere thank you for joining me in sharing the love of the love letters. I've been asked several times if this may be taught in stores, on retreats, at bead societies or in your own bead circle. My answer is YES please! Spread the love.
Here is a delightful coloring book I found that inspired the shaping of the letters. The pages are cardstock and perforated. The letters are repeated so you can color them and remove them from the book to use as you like. Personally I just like to look at the pretty shapes.
Here is a delightful coloring book I found that inspired the shaping of the letters. The pages are cardstock and perforated. The letters are repeated so you can color them and remove them from the book to use as you like. Personally I just like to look at the pretty shapes.
Blog content by Marcia DeCoster
