BOO – how to make large cut out letters

I have a fun and EASY Halloween decor idea for you today – it came out so awesome. I will show you how to make large cut out letters, and anyone can do it because they’re made of foam. Yep!

I am part of the Floracraft Make It: Fun Design Team and I have to say, I’m falling in love with foam!  It’s such a blank slate, and so easy to work with – for example, if this project were out of traditional sheets of wood, I would have had to have the right tools and begged Trevor to cut it out for me.  Foam I can do all on my own, and the lightweight quality opens up tons of possibilities and makes things so easy.  I haven’t done too much with foam in the past, but I’m really love it right now – I’m hooked!

So let’s get started on this project – you’ll need:

–3 11×17 sheets of Floracraft foam (in the craft store, it’s by the foam wreaths and foam balls)

–knife or if you want awesome, a foam cutter

–zip ties or wire

–paint as desired

So blogger fail, I forgot to take pictures of myself cutting the foam. Basically I just freehanded on my letters and cut along those lines.  I grabbed this ah-mazing foam cutting tool (it was hanging in the foam section) and it’s my new bff – I just love it.  I’ve used a hot knife in the past, which I also love, but this is so long it can go through really thick foam.  It heats up really hot and then just melts, so you move slowly and don’t push too hard – you want it to melt through, not force through.  You can also use a regular knife to cut your foam if that’s what you have on hand (but you’ll wish you had this!)

Alright, so after it’s all cut, move the letter that you cut out of the way (two projects in one?!) because this project works with the negative space – the leftover after the letter is out.  I first painted the edges in a pop of color – I love the fun and dimension it adds:

Next paint the main parts – front and sides.  I used a foam brush and dabbing seemed to work better than brushing. I went with a splochy look to add variety and texture.

To get the cut out insides of the letters to “float” I rummaged around and found some zip ties.  You could also use wire or whatever else you may find.  Just cut a small section, push one end into one side of the gap and the other end into the other side.  Do that to the tops and bottoms of the cut outs.  You can kind of see it in this pic below:

Stand back and enjoy your awesome (and easy!) creation.  Have you tried crafting with foam yet?  Here’s a great reason to give it a try – –

if you love halloween decor, here are some other projects (with tutorials!) you’ll want to try:

Bling Pumpkin | DIY Window Decals | Pallet Pumpkins