M is for Maria (I)

Maria’s Mom and I have known each other since we were just toddlers. Our Moms worked at  the same Institute  and we used to go together to the Christmas parties thrown for the employees’ children, to the Zoo, in the park to ride the carousels… We did become friends ourselves when we grew up… 10 years now?!

Then Maria came along. Maria is a beautiful and cheerful, smart and very curious child.

Last time the girls came to visit me, Maria painted salt dough Christmas tree decorations and she helped me to make some pizza. I cannot find the proper words to tell you how delighted she was to paint without restrictions and how many slices of the pizza she made she managed to eat!

And since the girls are due to visit me again, I wanted to prepare for Maria a new activity.

I have asked Maria’s Mom to send me a photo of Maria’s favourite place in the house. 

I like Maria’s name a lot, so I need a printed M, as big as I can make it on an A4 paper sheet, some thick cardboard from an old box some scissors and glue.

I put the sheet of paper with the printed M over the cardboard and with a pen, traced the contour of the letter on the sheet, so that the trace of my pen would get imprinted on the cardboard. Put the sheet of paper aside and retraced the letter on the cardboard, so that I could see better wehere to cut.

I decided to cut out three cardboard Ms, and glue them one onto each other so that the final letter would be thick enough to stand. Then I got the idea of sticking some pieces of cardboard in between layers of Ms so the letter would be even thicker. 

I thought that if I’d glue the cardboard with decoupage glue (Mod Podge), it should work….Well, it didn’t so I turned to some adhesive tape.

And there was my M. But it didn’t look good and children, usually have to like the things they come across, let alone play with!

How should I make the letter look more presentable?

I need the letter to be white, smooth as we might either glue on it, or paint it- I hadn’t decided at that point.

Since for decoupage they use printed and colored paper napkins, for a white base of the letter, couldn’t I use the classic white, kitchen paper towels? Said and done! 

I pulled apart the paper towel in smaller pieces, coated the M with decoupage glue and I started to cover it with the pieces of paper towel. Wonderful!

Once I finished this operation, I got out the hair dryer to speed up the drying process. 

In the end, I coated the letter with a layer of acrylic primer just to make sure that whether we paint or glue on the letter; we could do it without any surprises.

Making a cardboard letter wasn’t all that difficult and it didn’t take that long…I think I’ll be playing around with other letters, as well, in the near future.

I am not yet going to tell you what I have in mind for the M for Maria, sure thing, though, is that from here onwards Maria will take the lead on this little craft and it will perfectly match her favorite corner of the house.

I’ll tell you and show you tomorrow what came out of it.