DIY Letter Art on the Cheap!

I totally love the art where objects spell out letters.

You know, this stuff

Photo Credit

But with an average price of $7 a letter unframed- it gets a little pricey when your last name has 9 letters (thanks hubs!).

We have one that I received as a present for our wedding in our entryway, and the hub's grandparents admire it every time they come over. So for Christmas this year I knew that is what I wanted to get them- but I wasn't about to pay $70. I was determined to DIY it.

Well first I thought I could go out and take pictures myself, but with being massively preggers, then a newborn and dicey weather that was out.

Then I found Leo Reynold's Flickr site.

This man is awweesomee! He has thousands of pictures of letters and numbers and allows you to use them for free.

So using that and Microsoft Publisher I came up with this:

If you go under Page Design in Publisher and click on Margins then Custom Margins at the bottom. Once the window pops up, click on the Grid Guidelines tab and add as many rows and columns as you need. This gives you nice even squares to fit your images in. Once you find the letter you want, right click and change the size to Medium 640. Then make the window smaller, and leave it open over the blank Publisher document. Then you can click and drag the letter and drop it into your Publisher page and re size it to fit the blue grid lines.

Once you get your art the way you like it, you need to save it as a jpeg.  To do this click Save As, then at the bottom it says Save As a. Click the drop down menu and choose JPEG File Interchange Format.  Then change the resolution from standard to High Quality (300 dpi).  Then all you have to do is upload it to your favorite photo printing website and have it printed. Buy yourself a frame (bonus points if you have a coupon!) and you're good to go.

Total cost- $4.99 for the 11x13 Print at Ritz on Sale and $9.99 for the frame (50% off at Michaels) makes this custom gift less than $15.  Much better than the $70 without a frame (and I'm sure a 9 opening photo frame would cost an arm and a leg as well!)

So have fun playing around, lovelies, and show me what you made!