Joy! A Glitter-Filled Tutorial

I am so excited about these things!!!!!!

I keep walking by them, sitting on my cluttered table in my guest/craft room and I stop just to look at them sparkle.  I plan on using them for at least two things.   One is obviously decor for the holidays.  The other you’ll have to wait and see.

I never got excited about glitter until I had kids, but seeing things the way they see them- now I like the glitter and such of the holidays.   Now let’s get one thing straight:  Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday.  We do not play Christmas music or decorate for Christmas until the weekend after Thanksgiving.  But given what I’m going to use these for, I had to get crackin’.

So, here’s what you need to create your own glitter letters:

• patience
• time
• glitter in desired colors (you’ll see what I used below)
• letters (I got mine at Joann’s, though I don’t really like them pre-glitter- next time I will get some cuter ones like these)
• glue (I used Elmers)
• paint for covering letters before glittering
• paintbrushes- having a few sizes helps
• small paper plates- cheap & thin ones that bend easily
• rulers and other things for tracing patterns
• newspaper for protecting your surface from glitter

Paint your letters.  I painted all but a very small area first; let dry; finish; let dry.  I did two coats, and I used acrylic mainly because I had some.

Once your paint is dry, you can pencil your design on the front.  I knew I wanted each letter to be different.  What’s lovely is that you don’t need to worry if you mess up- the glitter will cover it all- hooray!  So, for example, when I did the “J,” I just used a ruler and traced it at an angle.

The “O” I freehanded, and I just labeled it with which color I wanted the dot to be, R’s for reds, G’s for greens.  I used two different spools of thread to trace the circles.

Now comes the fun part- the glitter!  I decided, since I needed glitter anyway, to try Martha Stewart’s glitter line.  It does not disappoint- it is so fine (as in tiny) and the colors are just beautiful.  These are the three colors I used (white gold, peridot & garnet):

I wasn’t sure if I’d want to buy the entire set that they sell with a bazillion colors.  I’m glad I got the bigger jars, but will be tempted now to get the whole set and glitter my entire house.

For the “J” I painted the glue on with a paint brush and did only one color at a time.  So I did silver first since it was going to be every other stripe.  I’d paint a stripe with glue, sprinkle on the glitter, and then tilt & tap to get the excess off.  At first I used a spoon until I got used to it, but found that after a while the spoon was just an extra step.

See that pile o’ glitter on my newspaper?  If you keep reading you’ll see how I get it back in the bottle and make very little mess (I think).

For the “O” I just used the tip of my glue bottle.  First I outlined the circle, then I filled it in.  I did find that if I was super careful with how smooth the glue was, the glitter adhered better.  Circles like the one on the right did not turn out looking as nice and I had to fill them in.

For the “Y” I did the red center first, then the colors on either side (sorry- for some reason “Y” didn’t get a lot of photo time and is sniveling in the corner.)

I think the most important thing about this is patience- waiting for the glue to dry.  I used a rather thick coat of glue, and didn’t want it to run and mess up my design.  So, for example, for the “J”, I did all of the silver stripes one day, and then the next I did the red and green.  The hardest letter by far, was the “O.”  Filling in all that silver around the dots took a lot of time, and it’s still not “perfect” but it’s cute.

So here’s how to get all that excess glitter back in the bottle/jar.  You’ll see below that after I did some green glitter I had a TON on the newspaper.  And on the right, you’ll see that my green glitter jar is nearly half empty.  This is where those cheap & flimsy paper plates come in.

Take your newspaper and angle it so that the glitter all slides to the center creases in the middle of the paper.  You’ll have to do this a few times from all sides of the paper.  Then carefully lift your paper with it folded in half, and tilt it.  Carefully dump all the glitter onto a paper plate (mine are about 6 inches across).

Now that your glitter is on the plate, it’s much easier to control.

Fold your plate in half, and then carefully aim it into the glitter jar- whoosh!  It all goes in, and if you’re lucky, it doesn’t spill!  Added bonus, you’ll hardly use any glitter- you’ll have a ton left.  None of my jars are even remotely used up, even after making these pretty thangs!

And one final look.  Please do tell, by the way- do you like glitter?  Hate it?  Like to have glittered things but don’t know about DIY?  I wasn’t sure about this and am so glad I did it!