Anthro Zinc Letter - {Tutorial}

Hello Between U & Me readers! I'm Karah, from the space between, a little blog I started a couple of months ago to chronicle my adventures in DIY. Due to my husband's work, I find myself moving around quite a bit and I am always trying to find ways to improve our current space, the space between what has been and what will be. Get it? :)

After owning for 8 years and doing some serious DIY home improvement (think crawl space duct work installation) we find ourselves renting on a little island called Curacao. Now I am on the hunt to find inexpensive ways to upgrade our space with mostly things that we can take with us when we go.

Now, I am also a sucker for meaningful, sentimental things so when I saw all of these Anthropologie zinc letter knock offs around I knew I wanted to make one with a letter that represents us. 

Yes, I know I'm pretty much the last arrival at this faux zinc letter party but I have been debating on what to actually make a letter out of. I had thought for a minute that I was going to do something like this pic I found at The Re-user's Guide to Green Living. 

But, in the grand scheme of things that will (hopefully) become a bit of a gallery wall above our couch there are already a bunch of natural items in the works so I thought something with a bit of a metallic finish would be just the right juxtaposition.

Ok, just for the record, I really did just use the word juxtaposition in context correctly and spelled it right the first try, without the help of spell check. This makes me happy since I can't spell jewelry right without a little help. Don't you pronounce it jewelery?

Anyway, when I had decided I needed some juxtaposition (ok, I might be done using that word soon) and then I saw what Becca did over at From Gardners 2 Bergers I had to give it a try.

I had seen a bunch of people buy the cardboard letters and then spray them with a metallic colored paint and distress/dry brush a bit with black paint. Easy enough, right?! But, I don't have access to the cardboard letters and I don't have any metallic colored spray paint and I may just be too cheap to buy a whole can of it for such a little project.

So, when I saw that Becca used tin foil and mod podge I knew I had to give it a try. But, in order to get started I still needed a letter. And on this little island we don't have such things as Michael's or Hobby Lobby, so I made one. Just whipped it up quick like. Out of a cardboard box.

I have to say, I had no idea if this was going to work so the fact that I ended up with a letter, that is totally recognizable as the intended letter, is awesome in my book.

I started with a regular ol' cardboard box. I cut off the 4 flaps and then free handed my letter. 

I cut it out and then used it as a template to make the exact same shape. 

I did a little measuring and cut out the insides of what would become a letter B with a box cutter. Then I cut a few strips 2 1/4 inches thick. I'm not exactly sure why I picked that width, but I wanted my letter to end up about 2 1/2 inches thick. 

The strips that I was going to use on the curves of the B I actually contoured a bit by hand before attaching them, just to try to help them along. I started with the 2 small inside parts and then glued the strips around the outside of the B. I didn't worry about any overlapping on the smaller parts because I knew they would end up hidden inside when all was said and done. I just used hot glue and a lot of patience. 

Success! My cardboard letter worked! Happy.

Now, I knew it wasn't going to be a perfectly smooth surface with the tin foil. It was impossible to line up the edges exactly when I was gluing it all together. But, when you read the reviews on Anthropologie they say the metallic is textured, so I'm just going authentic y'all. ;)

I was happy to have Becca's tutorial as a reference because I'm not so sure I would have realized to attach the tin foil to the edges first. I actually decided to do the inside edges first, then I did the back edge, then the outer curved edge, then the back and finally the front. Make sense?

This project increased my need desire for an exacto knife. I had to cut out the inner cut outs of the front and back pieces with a box cutter. It felt kinda like putting out a candle flame with a bucket of water.

After the tin foil was all attached I took just a touch of black paint and dry brushed it around to try to bring out some of the texture details. And, it also helps to camouflage any imperfections in the tin foil application. That is, if you were to have any, I'm not sayin' that I had any. ;)

But, I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I tied a black ribbon around it and just hung it to take some pics.

She'll find a permanent home here soon. For as much as anything is permanent around here. :)

Here's a couple of close up shots.

I'm not sure if the black ribbon with it's details is a little too frilly. But, the only other black ribbon thick enough for my liking is the 80's prom dress option I showed you here. For some reason, still not the look I'm going for. :)

One last look of all of her.

I was surprised that the Anthro version is only $18. Not a terrible deal, but can add up if you want to try to spell anything. Their letters measure 8" tall and 5" wide.

Mine cost ZERO dollars and measures 9 1/2" tall and 5 3/4" wide with a depth of 2 1/2".

Overall it took a bunch of small spurts of time. The construction of the letter itself turned out to be the easiest part. The attaching of the tin foil proved frustrating at times. Once you get glue on your fingers and the tin foil and the letter and it starts to get tacky you'll be lucky to not accidentally tear off parts you don't want to tear off just because they inadvertently stick to your fingers. :/

TIP!!! I learned the hard way to just glue one section (inside edges, straight back line, outside edges, front and back) of tin foil at a time and then let the whole thing dry completely before moving on. It made it hard to get into a rhythm with it, but in the long run waiting will save you time.

What do you think? Worth the time to make it for free or would you just rather buy one?

Thank you so much Courtney for letting me guest post with you today and thank you readers for taking the time to read about my little project. I mentioned earlier that I am a fan of all that is sentimental decor and a couple of things I've made that might be of interest to you are a wedding card ornament and personalized map dresser. I'd love it if you stopped on over to the space between and checked them out!