Back to School with Briana Johnson

When we moved into our house I had some kind of “nailing stuff to the wall” phobia. I decided I could use a little wall décor and knowing how much scrapbookers love letters, at least most of the ones I know do, I thought this might be a fun project to share. The paper mache letters came from Hobby Lobby. They’re regularly priced $2.47 a piece. I waited until they were half off and bought the entire alphabet and my daughter’s name.

I chose several patterns of Jenni’s papers from various releases. I used cream mist on two of the letters to make the colors a little more muted, the navy and white floral (Trendy Floral) and the green and white Victorian (Victoria – Sitting Room). I laid them out in an order I thought would look nice. I then took the letters, in order, and painted the sides of the letters the same colors as the background color of the coordinating patterned paper making sure to paint a little onto the front of the letter around the edges. After the letters dried I traced the letters onto the back of the paper. You might need a window or a light box to make sure you have your letter placed exactly where you want it like if using a large scale floral paper. Then cut them out. It takes about one bottle of Zip Dry glue to do this. I took the lid off the Zip Dry and holding the bottle next to the letter upside down, I ran a line of glue down the letter. I quickly used a foam brush (because you’ll have to throw it away when done) and spread out the glue then placed the paper on the letter and smoothed it down. Next, I took an Exacto knife and cleaned up the excess paper edges. I used a sanding block and a Basic Grey file set to distress the edges. I considered using a few solid black letters. If you don’t have enough patterned paper you might consider that.

The letters are lightweight and are hung on the wall using poster putty. From this angle you can see the sides of the letters are painted to match the papers.

I love the way it turned out. It’s so cool to me that Jenni’s papers from the newest release along with some from her oldest releases all still look so current and fabulous together.

So here’s the set I made for Ava’s room. I used a piece of vintage pillowcase edging trim, and after doing the above steps again, I glued the letters to the trim using bottle caps as spacers. I used Aleene’s Platinum Bond 7800 for that. I’m planning to do Zane’s teacher’s last name for teacher appreciation.

So many of these wonderful items from past releases can be found in the JBS Mercantile shop. The Mercantile exclusive paper can also be purchased there. Check it out! And thanks for joining me with my Love of Letters Jenni Bowlin Studio projects!

(And thanks to you Briana for some amazing alpha inspiration!)