Craft: Literary Letters

While I was pregnant with Jane I had the idea to buy wooden letters for Jane's name, then take classic literature with famous Janes, print out quotes from those books and put them on the letters.

It took me 10 months after Jane was born to finally get it done. In my defense, I had a newborn and bought a house in the last 10 months. ;)

Part of my inspiration for this project was a Christmas present my mother in-law gave us for our first married Christmas. It has one of our wedding photos in the middle and the lyrics from the song we danced to at our wedding on each side. Isn't it pretty? I love it.

Yay for awesome home made gifts! They're the best.

I knew I wanted Pride and Prejudice on the letters, being one of my favorite books and all. So I skimmed through the book looking for conversations between Jane and Elizabeth. I marked more than enough passages. I knew I could go back later and decide which ones were my favorites. Then I turned my attention to the book, Jane Eyre. I found a few of my favorite dialogues and marked them. I love the movie Becoming Jane and I thought it might be appropriate to have some quotes from the movie on one of the letters. So I found a screen play of the movie online and copied a few of my favorite scenes to a word document. I added to the document the passages I had marked in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. 

Next I worked on getting the right size and font. I don't know about anybody else, but for me, choosing a font is so hard! There's too many choices but at the same time I can't find exactly what I'm looking for either. First world problems right? ;) 50 fonts later, I finally found one that was suitable. Easy enough to read, but still looked like a feather written letter. Next I found all the Jane and Elizabeths in the document, then I bolded and made them slightly bigger than the rest of the text.

Once I was happy with how it looked in my word document, I finally printed the pages out. Then I traced the letters on the pages to see what would actually end up on the letters.

I had to make sure I was getting ample Janes and Elizabeths on there.

Also making sure the font was big enough to read on the letters.

After doing a couple of tweaks to the word document and printing and tracing the letters again, I was ready to print on my patterned paper. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the paper is supposed to look like distressed pages of a book. I wanted that vintage feel from classic books. 

The time had come to cut out the letters! I was afraid I was going to mess them up, but everything turned out fine. I set the wooden letter on the corresponding page and traced around it with a hobby knife.

Anybody have an idea of what I could do with the leftovers?

Yay! The paper is cut out and ready to be pasted to the letters. I spread a thin layer of Mod Podge on the wooden letters and positioned the paper and pressed firmly over the entire surface. I added a thin sealing layer of Mod Podge on top and let dry. Ta da! I'm super happy with how they turned out.

The J has conversations between Jane and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. One of my favorite quotes, "Until I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness"

The A has dialogue from the movie Becoming Jane. I especially like that it has "Bravo Jane" on it.

The N has more conversations between Jane and Elizabeth. I mean, it has both Jane's first and middle name, so I thought it deserved two letters devoted to it.

The E has passages from the book Jane Eyre. I like that it says delight in sacrifice twice on it. 

It was a fun project! It made me want to read Pride and Prejudice again, even though I've probably already read it 5 times. Hmmmm, 10 month old who doesn't sleep well... Then again maybe I'll just watch the movie. ;)

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Craft: Family Board Book

All the materials

I was browsing Pinterest (Which I love! I don't know why I resisted it so long.) and came across an idea to make your own board book for your baby. I thought it was a great idea and didn't seem too complex. I wanted make a family book for Jane, so she could learn everyone's face and name. I found a blank board book on Amazon for about $5. I bought some white, light weight (65lb) card stock and I already had some Mod Podge and foam paint brushes from another craft I was working on. The only thing left to do in preparation was to pick out the pictures and add a caption. (When I was looking through pictures, I realized a few family members don't have a good  picture with Jane. We'll have to remedy that soon!) Once I had all the pictures ready I printed them, cut them out and started gluing them on the board book. I spread a layer of Mod Podge on the board book then positioned my picture and pressed it firmly to the page. After a couple of minutes, I added a thin sealing layer of Mod Podge on top of the picture. I made sure to let the page dry completely (30 min or more) before turning the page to work on the next. That way the pages wouldn't stick to each other.

If I make another board book, I will probably try to print on normal paper and see how it works out. The card stock is too thick and doesn't let the board book close all the way.

Here is the finished product! It's definitely not perfect, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

That you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.