Turn old scrabble tiles into a piece of art by spelling out a favourite quote.

I have another wedding gift from our summer of weddings to share with you today. I nearly called this "Another Scrabble Tile Picture" as making things with Scrabble tiles is something I've shared before. I always buy Scrabble games when I see them in charity shops but that has led to my discovery that the type of tiles they make has changed over the years. I now have a right old assortment but try not to mix the different tiles in any one project.

Basically that means I spend ages sitting with a heap of tiles trying to see what words and phrases I can make! 

This gift was for a lovely couple who like handmade and homemade (the bride made her own invitations) and their home decor is warm, cosy, country so I chose a wooden box frame and a pretty floral paper for the background.

To make something similar you need:

• A box frame

• Scrapbook paper

• Old scrabble tiles*

• Strong Glue - I used a hot glue gun

• Scrap card, a pencil and masking or washi tape

• A suitable quote

This whole thing is super easy to make, basically you are just glueing the Scrabble tiles onto your fancy scrapbook paper to spell out your chosen quote and popping it into a box frame - easy!

The only slightly tricky thing is getting the words central and straight.

DON'T draw pencil marks onto your pretty paper, once those tiles are glued on you just won't be able to get to them properly to rub them out.

This is what worked for me:

• Cut your pretty scrapbook paper to the size of your box frame first then play around with the tiles until you are happy with the arrangement of words on the paper.

• Measure the gap top and bottom of your arrangement and cut a bit of scrap card to that width - that's the blue card in the photos below.

• Push the tiles for the top row together (it's SO much easier to keep things straight if you don't leave gaps between each tile) and mark either end on the scrap card. Shown in big ol' black arrows on the photos.

• Tape the scrap card to the top of the pretty paper, making the word gap you've marked central.

• Now it's easy to glue the tiles into place, as you can push them right up against the scrap card.

• Just make sure you remove your scrap card straight away before it gets stuck down too!

• Repeat on the bottom, obviously leave gaps between the words as I have here!

• Once the top and bottom rows were firmly in place I measured the gap needed between the other 3 rows in my quote and cut a strip of scrap card the right width.

• I actually didn't mark any more for these middle lines, I just used the top and bottom lines to help me centre everything by eye. You could measure if that's your thing.

• It was really useful to have the card to push the tiles up against to help to keep them straight.

*If you don't have access to any old scrabble sets at the right price, maybe you could get the same effect by printing them on card and mounting them with foam pads. A quick google search should find you free printable scrabble tiles.

We gave the couple their gift a week or so before their big day so I was so honoured when we arrived at the reception to find they have used this picture as part of their wedding decorations on the top table! 

Isn't their cake topper fab! As you can see they come from 2 different parts of the world which is why I chose this quote for them.

It's so lovely when you give a handmade gift and then discover they really do like it - for real!

I've been looking for the source of this quote but I've not been able to find it to properly attribute it, I just found it on Pinterest. Please let me know if you know where it comes from.

Julie

I'll be sharing over at these Link Parties