Make and Decorate Your Own Letter Standee

Letter standees are "a thing" these days. From wedding and birthday party decorations to kids' room and nightstand display, they add charm and cool vibe to the place. That's why I made these, with my baby's initials, JK. I love how they turned out. The design looks too girly but my baby is a girl and pink is kind of the official color for little girls. 

I've seen a lot of these for sale that are ready to be decorated but I always missed buying one. Besides, I thought that it would be better to make one myself so I can choose the font and size I want. Now, let me show you how I made my custom letters.

I started with choosing a font. I was thinking of a curvy font at first, but I decided to choose a simple one and to just overdecorate it later. 

The next step would have been easier if I have a printer working, too bad, I haven't got a new ink cartridge still. So, I just traced the letter on the laptop monitor. After cutting it from the paper, I used it to draw out the letter on the cereal box. You may use any cardboard box for this, as long as it's sturdy for the project.

I made two letter Js, the one for the back is a mirror image.

I cut a width of 1.5 inches of cardboard for the sides, this would be the thickness of the letter. Next is to attach it in between the cut out Js. To attach this, you can tape the side around the letter using a masking tape. Again, unfortunately, I have to do the long way because I don't have a masking tape on hand. I used hot glue on this process because it dries instantly.

I cut strips of cardboard, scored and folded it, and glued to the side of the letter J that would go inside.

I then glued the side to those strips.

This time, I glued the folded strips on the sides so I could just glue the other letter J on top. If you want to make your letter standee heavier, you can put in crumpled paper inside before you close it.

To make it sturdier, I cut small strips of paper and paste them on the letter, like doing paper mache. Only, I used a mixture of water and white glue instead of paper mache paste. If you want the letter thicker or heavier, paper mache paste is better, I think.

I did two layers of the paper strips and glue. It's now finished and ready to be decorated. You can choose to paint it to cover the whole letter. What I did is use scrapbook paper to cover it and decorate.

I cut the piece that will cover the sides first. My letter is 1.5 inches thick, I cut the paper into 2 inches wide to make it a little bit wider so it can be folded to the front and back a little.

Then, I drew the letter J and a mirror image of it on the paper, for the front and the back, cut it and glued it on.

I used a stamp pad on the edges to make some distressed effect. The wrapping is done. If you want a cute and simple letter, it's already good as it is like that, but I was in the mood for overdecorating so I decided to add more stuff.

I crocheted a butterfly and a flower, and applied the water and glue mixture to stiffen them.

I also made these simple wire and beads embellishments to add sparkle.

I arranged the items on the letter first and finalized where I want to stick them on, and when I was already sure that it's where I wanted each one to be, I put them on the letter permanently using hot glue.

Ta-da! My very own letter standees. The letter J couldn't stand alone so I taped it to K. So if your letter is curvy like C or O, make the bottom a little straighter or put something heavy inside the letter to make it stand and stay in place.

That's it. Thanks for reading!