faux zinc letter {anthropologie knock off}

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Now, let me digress here for one second and wish a very happy birthday to my big brother, Shane. He is the bomb diggity! He’s the Abbott to my Costello, the a la mode to my apple pie, the only sane family member I have best big brother that a little sister could ask for. Celebrate big my friend, you deserve it! XXOO  (And give that nephew of mine a big ol’ hug from Auntie K!)

AND, check out the Imagine the Impossibilities Challenge. I personally invite you to join the challenge and sumbit your “impossible” at the link party on January 31st. Click here to find out more and don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions. It would be so fun to have you all involved!

And, to all of my ol’ faithfuls, sit back and settle in. This project is a winner! (In my humble opinion anyway!)  And, of course, I’m always looking to hear your thoughts and chat with you in comments.

Update:  I posted my first challenge update post here.

Now, I am a sucker for meaningful, sentimental things so when I saw all of these Anthropologie zinc letter knock offs around I knew I wanted to make one with a letter that represents us.

I started with a regular ol’ cardboard box. I cut off the 4 flaps and then free handed my letter.

I cut it out and then used it as a template to make the exact same shape.
I did a little measuring and cut out the insides of what would become a letter B with a box cutter. Then I cut a few strips 2 1/4 inches thick. I’m not exactly sure why I picked that width, but I wanted my letter to end up about 2 1/2 inches thick.
The strips that I was going to use on the curves of the B I actually contoured a bit by hand before attaching them, just to try to help them along. I started with the 2 small inside parts and then glued the strips around the outside of the B. I didn’t worry about any overlapping on the smaller parts because I knew they would end up hidden inside when all was said and done. I just used hot glue and a lot of patience.

Success! My cardboard letter worked! Happy.

Now, I knew it wasn’t going to be a perfectly smooth surface with the tin foil. It was impossible to line up the edges exactly when I was gluing it all together. But, when you read the reviews on Anthropologie they say the metallic is textured, so I’m just going authentic y’all. 😉

I was happy to have Becca’s tutorial as a reference because I’m not so sure I would have realized to attach the tin foil to the edges first. I actually decided to do the inside edges first, then I did the back edge, then the outer curved edge, then the back and finally the front. Make sense?

This project increased my need desire for an exacto knife. I had to cut out the inner cut outs of the front and back pieces with a box cutter. It felt kinda like putting out a candle flame with a bucket of water.

After the tin foil was all attached I took just a touch of black paint and dry brushed it around to try to bring out some of the texture details. And, it also helps to camouflage any imperfections in the tin foil application. That is, if you were to have any, I’m not sayin’ that I had any. 😉

But, I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I tied a black ribbon around it and just hung it to take some pics.
She’ll find a permanent home here soon. For as much as anything is permanent around here. 🙂

Here’s a couple of close up shots.

I’m not sure if the black ribbon with it’s details is a little too frilly. But, the only other black ribbon thick enough for my liking is the 80’s prom dress option I showed you here. For some reason, still not the look I’m going for. 🙂

One last look of all of her.
I was surprised that the Anthro version is only $18. Not a terrible deal, but can add up if you want to try to spell anything. Their letters measure 8″ tall and 5″ wide.

Mine cost ZERO dollars and measures 9 1/2″ tall and 5 3/4″ wide with a depth of 2 1/2″.

Overall it took a bunch of small spurts of time. The construction of the letter itself turned out to be the easiest part. The attaching of the tin foil proved frustrating at times. Once you get glue on your fingers and the tin foil and the letter and it starts to get tacky you’ll be lucky to not accidentally tear off parts you don’t want to tear off just because they inadvertently stick to your fingers. :/

TIP!!! I learned the hard way to just glue one section (inside edges, straight back line, outside edges, front and back) of tin foil at a time and then let the whole thing dry completely before moving on. It made it hard to get into a rhythm with it, but in the long run waiting will save you time.

What do you think? Worth the time to make it for free or would you just rather buy one?