What I've Been Up To: Nursery projects: Marquee letters!

I gave myself a pretty ambitious list of projects I wanted to complete before Wiggles got here, and I've accomplished almost all of it! The first was marquee letters for the 'nursery.' I'd seen them and like them, but they can sell for quite a bit. I looked up several tutorials on different ways to make them. I would have preferred to make sturdy ones out of wood and metal flashing,  but seeing as I didn't have easy access to a saw, and since I was going to be hanging them on the wall above where baby would be sleeping, I decided to go with a lighter, though less sturdy version.

I spent several hours researching fonts and making a list of ones I like, and many more picking exactly which one I wanted for each letter. Then, on to actual construction!

First I cut out two cardboard shapes for each letter. One shape I covered with metal tape (shown here with holes poked for lights to go through). I used aluminum tape for one letter, and copper for the other.

The second shape was the backer. We glued stacks of cardboard strips as spacers.

For the W, I covered the outline cardboard in metal tape, and attached the outside after running the lights and hot gluing down the front to the back, as so:

I had originally planned to do the same with the T, but the copper tape was purchased online and I didn't realize how thin it was (and thus much more expensive than the aluminum!) Luckily, I had a copper coated metal plate left over from Christmas crafts, and I was able to cut exactly what I needed from it, in about four strips. 

It was much harder to work with- I had to pre-bend the pieces, and try to glue the entire piece at once.

You can see here the metal-taped cardboard, as well as the less than perfect gaps I left when gluing the metal bits down. There is also a gap between each piece (in the curve) I spot fixed many of these with more copper tape.

A blurry close up of the W.

A close up of the T, where you can see some of the 'patching' I did along the seams. I also left a gap in the bottom, lined up with the end of the plug, in case I want to add another string of lights/letter in the future.

The glow of these when the lights are out is wonderfully calming. Basically the perfect evening/bedtime light. I am so pleased with the results!

Here's a shot of the layout...

And here is the wall a little closer to finished. I'd love to be able to paint the 'nursery', but since we will be moving pretty soon, I'm settling for plastic tablecloths. A few thumbtacks and it's not a bad approximation of a painted space. Since this picture I've added one more to the left, but still need to add one to the bottom to finish off the nursery area.

The star swirls are another quick project--just glow in the dark stick on stars. They are lovely in the dark.