Nailed It: BOO Garland

Welcome to another edition of Nailed It! where I attempt Pinterest crafts with probably varying results. Up today is "BOO" garland.

Once again I don't have any specific pictures of the craft I was going for, the idea just came to me after looking at all kinds of different images. That, and I went a little crazy on my birthday craft buying spree and had to figure out what the heck I was going to do with all the random things I bought.

 Here is what I started out with. The BOO letters are from Joannes, and you can ignore the Goodwill candle sticks in the background because they're for a different project (the first attempt of which was destroyed by a certain puppy.) I decided to use satin spray paint in this project because the gloss I used for the bug bouquet project was just too difficult to work with- sticky, took a long time to cure, etc.

Here are the letters after I painted them. I love the satin finish- and the candlesticks came out amazing- but the cheap cardboard surface was definitely asking for a coat of something else. Luckily that's exactly what I was going to do.

 

For this step I was going to use Mod Podge but after inspecting my adhesive drawer, I realized I didn't have any! Whoops! Luckily I had a ton of tacky glue and it worked out just fine.

After pouring tacky glue on the letters I took a disposable foam brush and brushed out the glue so that it'd coat the letter thinly and evenly.

 Then it was time for glitter!

 

"I like to do crafts. I work with glitter quite a bit. Don't worry, I make tough stuff like daggers and skulls. The thing about glitter is, if you get it on you, be prepared to have it on you forever 'cause glitter is the herpes of craft supplies." - Demetri Martin

Truer words have never been spoken. I knew that covering these letters in glitter was going to be a mess (you should have seen the crime scene I made when I made the moss letters for R's nursery!) but this was another level of crazy. There was glitter all over the desk, the carpet, my hands, the doorknobs, the bathroom where I tried to rid myself of this heinous disease, etc. And every time I though I had cleaned it all up those letters would just shed more glitter everywhere! I knew I needed to take an extra step if I was going to infect my entire house, and all the other Halloween decorations for the rest of our lives.

Luckily I had this can of Rust-Oleum Crustal Clear Enamel laying around, and I decided it'd be the perfect way to seal these letters. It definitely changed the texture and now the letters aren't quite as sparkly, but there's no question that it was worth it. The enamel put an end to the glitter shedding!

 

This sweet but naughty puppy loves to follow me while I'm running around crafting, and I couldn't pass up a picture of his sweet face. He's 6 months old now- and uh, 70lbs!

After the letters were coated with enamel I figured it was time for the final step of tying them together with ribbon and then adding the finishing touches (some glitter spiders I bought on after-Halloween clearance last year and forgot I had.) I thought wrong! When I took them downstairs to hang them against the mirror I realized that you could see the ugly, unpainted backs! This project felt like it was never going to end.

  

Yikes! See what I mean?

 

Once again I was saved by my inability to throw away crafting supplies and a little bottle of black acrylic paint solved this problem rather quickly! If you want to attempt this craft yourself, do yourself a favor and spray paint both sides in the beginning!

The final product! It's good enough for me, and I'm glad to be done with it. ;)