April's Review	Renee's Review	Tammy's Review	Stephanie's Review	Wendy's Review

Review by April

I have always wanted to design a home decor project using large letters. I think the addition of pronounced letters used to spell an inspiring word across a wall or on a shelf is striking. Wooden Letters is a company based out of Fayetville, Arkansas and they specialize in making wooden letters for walls and signs. They recently sent our ScrapFriends team a variety of wooden letters in different fonts to review and when I found out I would be working with the word "Inspire", I was thrilled!

For this review I received seven wooden letters that spelled the word "Inspire". Each wooden letter is made from a high quality pine plywood. My letters came in the "Georgia" font, and the smallest letter was eight inches in length. Since the wooden letters are measured off of the shortest wood letter for that font, some of the letters were taller than eight inches. The letters come already cut and sanded, and are approximately 1/2" thick. Since the letters are not painted and have already been sanded, they provide the perfect surface to paint, decorate, and alter. Each of the letters in the eight inch size are priced at a reasonable $5.25. Wooden letters currently has over 30 different fonts to choose from, and their letters are available in sizes that range from four inches all the way up to 24 inches depending on the type of wooden letter you choose. You also have the option of ordering all uppercase letters, all lowercase letters, or having what I received which is one uppercase and the rest lowercase.

After purchasing a 24" x 36" cork board at a garage sale, I decided it would be cool to dress it up with the wooden letters and create a wall hanging. To begin, I used a quick dry craft glue to adhere the wooden letters to the center of the cork board. I then applied a coat of gesso to the entire board including the letters. I used an old gift card to create some interesting texture on the cork board background after applying a thicker second coat of gesso. Next I mixed several colors of acrylic paint until I achieved my desired color, and then I added a little bit of gloss medium and water to create a glaze. I painted the entire board and each letter with the paint glaze, let it set for about 30 seconds, and then I gently rubbed it off with a paper towel. The result was a sort of stonewashed effect and I loved it! I also rubbed a paper towel around the edges of the painted letters and this gave them a slightly sanded look. To decorate the trim of the cork board I embossed metal repair tape, adhered it to the edges, and then colored it with alcohol inks. I also used my fingers to rub a little of the alcohol ink into the outer edges of the cork board. To complete the project, I added a beautiful butterfly transparency, some three dimensional embellishments like flowers, pearls, and felt shapes, and then I added some sparkly glitter glue to various areas on the board.

Title: Inspire
Products used:
Letters (Wooden Letters)
Gesso (Liquitex)
Paints (Claudine Hellmuth Studio Line)
Multi Medium Gloss (Claudine Hellmuth Studio Line)
Alcohol Ink (Ranger)
Metal Tape (Lowes)
Transparency (Heidi Swapp)
Pearl Stickers (Basic Grey)
Flowers (Prima)
Pearl Pin (Maya Road)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Felt Shapes (Fancy Pants)

I enjoyed working with the wooden letters and would love to create more projects with them in the future. The fact that they were already sanded meant I could get started decorating right away and I really liked that. The pine plywood is very light in color so it's easy to cover or looks very pretty just as is. Being an 1/2" in thickness meant that each wooden letter was very sturdy, yet they were relatively light in weight making them easy to hold. I feel like no matter how you decorate these letters, they are sure to be eye catching and would provide a uniquely stunning visual to any room. If you are looking for wooden letters to alter, create home decor with, or just make a statement, these are the wooden letters I would recommend!

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Review by Renee

With the sale of our home in our former city, and the active hunt for a new one in the new city, I have been actively looking to decorate the “scraproom” I hope to have in my new home. After looking at numerous rooms online and in magazines, I created several canvases for that space. One of the things that I loved in those rooms that I looked at was the large wooden words that were hung on the walls of the rooms. I have always wanted a set of wooden letters in a word that would help to inspire me. I was so excited to see that we would be reviewing the company Wooden Letters on the June lineup of products.

For this review, I received six letters cut from plywood in a Jester font spelling out the word CREATE. These letters are approximately 8 inches tall and are approximately 4 to 5 inches wide at the widest point. They are perfectly sized for hanging on a wall as they are large enough to create a presence to be seen without overwhelming the wall. The letters themselves were relatively smooth when received and were basically ready for me to alter.

For my project, I chose to paint the entire letter in a base coat and then cover each letter in a coordinating paper. Since the letters were cut from raw plywood, I really should have primed them for better coverage. However, because I was covering the fronts, the coverage I was able to obtain was adequate for my project. I found the letter faces to be very smooth and to take the glue easily when applied. Also, the font used made it very easy to trace and cut out my paper letters to apply to the front of my project.

Title: Create
Products used: Patterned Paper (Making Memories Sabrina Line)
Paint (Delta)
Embellishments (Making Memories)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

In addition to the overall altering, I found the letters easy to decorate after altered. They are perfectly sized to hold a ribbon tied around them or to showcase a grungy flower layer. The stems of the letters are approximately 1 inch across, making it easy to tie a ribbon around the letter stem. Likewise, this size is just big enough to decorate with embellishments.

Title: Detail Shot

Title: Detail Shot

I really enjoyed working with the Wooden Letters words. They are easy to alter and create a perfect addition for a wall.

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Review by Tammy

Wooden Letters – a sensible name for a sensible company!

The letters I received seem to be made from a soft pine and the edges and sides of each letter were sanded giving them a nice smooth surface to work on. The word I was given to work with was “Home” in the font “chalk”. The letters measured ½ inch in thickness and the capital letter measured 12 inches high with the lower case letters measuring about 8 inches. When put together, the word covers about an 18 inch span.

As I began my project I decided to start by applying a coat of white gesso to the letters. While doing this, I realized that once my project was finished I would have no way of hanging them on my wall. As I looked through the Wooden Letters website I found that they sell keyhole plates that can be attached to the backside of each letter and allow the letters to be hung flush against the wall.

Once my gesso was dry I painted the edges with a brown acrylic which would give a shadowing effect on my letters. I then chose four coordinating papers that matched the room that these letters would be displayed in, and attached the paper using Gel Medium. Once the paper was dry and secure, I cut away the excess paper using an X-acto knife and finished the edges with an emery board. At this point I stamped some flourish images onto the paper covered letters and embossed them with glitter embossing powder. I outlined each of the letters with a white pen and then attached the dimensional stickers to each letter.

Title: Home
Products used: Letters (Wooden Letters)
Patterned Paper (Paper Studio)
3-D Stickers (Paper Studio)
Gesso (Liquitex)
Acrylic Paint (Claudine Hellmuth)
Gel Medium (Claudine Hellmuth)
Embossing Glitter (PK Glitz)
Colorbox ink (Clearsnap)
Gel Pen (Inksenssials)

Now that my project is complete I have decided that I would like to mount the letters onto a wooden stand allowing the word to be displayed on a shelf. The thickness of the letters allow them to be very versatile in that they are not too bulky for a wall display yet they are sturdy enough to be mounted onto a stand.

I was very pleased with the quality of the Wooden Letters products and would highly recommend them!

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Review by Stephanie

Do you like to alter? Does the idea of altering letters appeal to you? How about altering an entire word? Great idea, right? Well, whether you are an altering pro or just a dabbler, you will have a lot of fun altering these wooden letters. Wooden Letters.net, located in Arkansas, is an online source for amazing wooden letters. Now these aren’t your ordinary wooden letters by any means. These wooden letters can be as large or as small as you want. Custom made, these wooden letters can adorn any room in your home. Wooden Letters.net makes thick wooden letters from 6” – 18” in height and ½” to ¾” in thickness. These letters are pre-cut, made from plain plywood or birchwood, can be purchased plain or painted and come in a variety of fonts. For proportion sake, the letters are measured from the lowercase “a”.

Think of what you can create with these wooden letters. Purchase one or two letters for your initials or purchase letters for an entire word. Choose from 24 different fonts. Altering these letters can be really fun; however, if you don’t want to alter them, that’s no problem at all. Wooden Letters.net will take custom orders and provide you with beautifully painted letters (in your choice of 11 different colors) and provide matching ribbon from which to hang them. You get the best of both worlds at the click of a mouse. Of course, if you would prefer to speak with someone directly, their website has a link to their customer service department.

The letters I received measured 8” tall, with the “d” being approximately 10” tall for uniformity. The font was whimsical and spelled the word “dream”. The complete word when hung measures approximately 28” – an amazing size!!!

As you can see, these letters are nice and chunky and very easy to work with. They are cut very well and sanded to an even finish. I didn’t find any uneven spots I needed to fill before I began my project. Many times I’ve used wooden items and needed to “patch” them before I could begin working with them. I must say that Wooden Letters.net does an awesome job of giving you an item that you can use immediately. I first started by painting my letters. Since the letters were already lightly sanded, I found the paint went on smoothly and easily. As I intended to cover the front side with pattern paper, I wasn’t extremely careful with my paint. Once dry, I traced the letters onto my pattern papers and began the altering process. As this was a complete word, I wanted some harmony in my altering so I used a striped paper for the base of my letters and built the various layers from there. Once I had my paper layers completed, I went back and sanded the edges to create an even, uniform look. Then I inked the edges for a little more dimension. Adding ephemera, chipboard, rubons and bling I was able to create the look I wanted; i.e., my dreams about the traveling I wish to do.

Title: dream
Products used: Wood letters (Wooden Letters.net)
Pattern Paper (My Minds Eye)
Paint (Making Memories)
Ink (Rangers)
Die Cuts (Provo Craft)
Gems (My Minds Eye)
Chipboard (My Minds Eye)
Rub-ons (Cosmo Cricket)
Ribbon (unknown)
Adhesive (ACMoore)

A review of Wooden Letters.net website shows the many other items they create which include wood letters, painted wall letters, outdoor letters and Greek letters. They will custom make anything you need, even providing the ribbons you may want to use in hanging your creations. Custom made items are no problem at all. I don’t believe Wooden Letters.net is widely known in the scrapping industry and that really needs to be rectified. If you want to create a one of a kind item then Wooden Letters.net is the place you should definitely look into. Their products are wonderful and will have you happily creating something very unique in no time at all. I had a lot of fun altering my letters and would do it again without hesitation. Thanks Wooden Letters.net for allowing me the opportunity to work with your products. I look forward to working with more items in the future.

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Review by Wendy

When I found out I was going to be reviewing a set of birch letters from WoodenLetters.net I was very excited. I've played around a bit in altered arts, but this was the first time working with wooden letters. Paint, stain, decoupage with scrapbook papers, embellish with ribbons and rubons, the possibilities were endless.

I received the word Love cut in the Cooper Black font. The letters spanned from 11 x 7 inches for the capital "L" to 8 x 6 inches for the lowercase letters. They were 1/2 inch thick birch.

Since the birch has such a beautiful wood grain, I decided not to cover it up but instead find a medium to accent it. Although it had been years since I tried pyrography, I decided these letters would be the perfect surface to give it a try again. Even though the wood was in pretty good shape, I gave the letters a light sanding before starting. Using a wildflower stamp, I stamped the images on the wood surface. These provided a pattern to begin burning over with the wood burning tool. After experimenting on the backside, I began burning the designs into the wood. To finish the wood I created a tinted stain by mixing watercolors and varnish. I added more colors of greens and yellows, mixing the colors directly on the wet wood surface. The finishing touch were some butterfly stickers added amongst the weeds. I used foam tape to temporarily hang them to the wall, but they could be permanently hung using the keyhole plates available on their website.

Title: LOVE wooden letters
Products used: birch 8 inch Cooper Black (WoodenLetters.net)
Garden Delight Clear Stamps(Inkadinkado)
Butterfly vellum stickers (Dollar Tree)
Flair Varnish(Walnut Hollow Farms)
Watercolors (Winsor & Newton)
wood burning tools

Here you can see a side view of the depth of the letters.

Title:side view of letters
Products used:birch 8 inch Cooper Black (WoodenLetters.net)
Garden Delight Clear Stamps(Inkadinkado)
Butterfly vellum stickers (Dollar Tree)
Flair Varnish(Walnut Hollow Farms)
Watercolors (Winsor & Newton)
wood burning tools

A close-up of the surface shows the beautiful wood grain and the texture that the wood burning adds.

Title:close up of letter
Products used: birch 8 inch Cooper Black (WoodenLetters.net)
Garden Delight Clear Stamps(Inkadinkado)
Butterfly vellum stickers (Dollar Tree)
Flair Varnish(Walnut Hollow Farms)
Watercolors (Winsor & Newton)
wood burning tools

I took a look around the WoodenLetters website and was very impressed. You can select letters from 4 inches all way up to 24 inches. They offer a selection of popular fonts and will even customize letters upon request. Prices range from $4.75/letter up to $13.00.letter depending on the size and wood type. WoodenLetters provides an excellent product that I hope to use again in the future.

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