my first tute - love

i made this for our front foyer - and thought, although it is easy, i wanted to give writing a tutorial a try.  i would love your feedback - because i would like to get better and better at this.  so many times i am in the middle of a project and think,  ooh, i should have taken pictures and done a tutorial.

here's the finished product

Here's what you will need:
embroidery hoop - painted color of your choice, or left natural
fabric for background - large enough to fit your hoop plus a few inches all the way around
fabric for letters
pellon 805 wonder under fusible web - or something similar
"zots" craft adhesive, or something similar
scissors
iron
letters - printed from your computer on cardstock - or freehand cut... whatever suits you

first, i would go ahead and iron my wonder under onto my fabric for the letters.  this will give it a chance to cool and be easier to peel the backing off.  just follow the instructions that come with the wonder under.

 i found my frame at goodwill.  they are available at any craft store.
i painted the frame white and then found some fabric i liked.

put the fabric in the frame and pull it taut.

then i went to paint (you could use Word, or whatever you prefer) and found a font i liked (salaryman in this case) and printed it out as large as i possibly could.

 

it is a good idea to print it out on cardstock so it will be sturdy enough to trace around the cut out letters. 

i wanted the work bigger, so i enlarged 175% on the copier.  you may have to fiddle around a bit until you figure out what looks best for you.

when you have what you want with your cardstock letters, cut then out carefully - these will be your templates for you fabric letters.

 trace the wrong or the backside of your letters onto the paper side of your fabric.

 

now comes the cutting.  i suggest you use really sharp scissors so you can have as clean of an edge as possible.

once you have you letters all cut out, it is time to take of the paper backing...

position each letter where you would like it to be and then get out the hot iron.  you goal right now is just to tack the letters in place, not necessarily 100% adherence.

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once they are tacked on, with no floppy edges, turn the frame over and iron on the backside.  

make a few slow passes and then check to see that everything on the front is where you want it to be.

then trim the extra fabric away from the edge of the back of the frame.  leave enough of an edge so that you can tack down the edges for a finished look.

you can use these - they do a great job ... or an adhesive of your choice.

place the zots around the inside edge of the frame..

 

 

start to fold fabric over, all the way around the frame.

to hang this i used the 3m picture hangers - both sides of the hanger have velcro.  these are so awesome for those of us that enjoy moving things around the house and don't like patching nail holes along the way :)

 

first you stick one hanger to the object you are hang and then the way i do it is to put the other hanger (the one that will be stuck to the wall) on top of the one you have already placed on the object.

 the next think to do is to peel off this backing, go to you hanging spot and stick it on the wall.

ta - da!  stand back and smile and say,

"hey!  i do good work".

p.s.  if your item to hang seems heavier, by all means use more than one hanger!

i've had a couple things come down unexpectedly, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

p.p.s.  if you make one, send me a pic - i'd LOVE to see it :)

... and please let me know what you think of this tutorial - i'd appreciate any feedback - that's how we learn :)