DIY Scrabble Wedding Present

What I Made Today

So here it is - the first post on the blog!

I thought I'd kick off with a mini DIY tutorial of something that has been popular on my Pinterest Board 'What I Made Today' - a wedding present I made for my brother and his fiancee when they got married. 

It's a really fun and personal present, with so many variables and options. You could also use it for an engagement or new baby gift!

What you will need

• A box frame (try Ikea or Wilkinsons)
• An old Scrabble board (charity shop, ebay etc.)
• Multi-purpose glue
• Scissors (possibly a small hack saw!)
• Scanner and printer (optional)

It really doesn't matter what kind of Scrabble set you use, but it may affect the size of your finished piece and also how easy it is to resize the Scrabble board. The Scrabble board I used here was a travel Scrabble set, which came with a perforated board for the small letters to clip in to. Travel sets have smaller tiles; children's Scrabble a more simplistic sans serif font; normal Scrabble will give you a larger size tile and so you may want to but your box frame according to the size you want you finished piece to be.

I also created one for my cousin Gavin and his wife, don't tell them it was a recycled gift idea...!

Method

Take the back piece out of your box frame and lay it on the Scrabble board - I chose to place the centre of the Scrabble board at the centre of the frame. Mark or draw around the frame's backing so you can see how much scrabble board will fill the frame.
Tip: you could use masking tape to avoid marking the Scrabble board if you go wrong.

Choose the words that you would like to spell out. I went for first names and, in the top example, 'love', 'marriage' and rings'. Have a play around on the Scrabble board to see how you can interlink the names and what arrangement this gives you; the chances are there will be a couple of different combos. 
Tip: use the vowels to allow easiest intersections.

Bear in mind the shape of your box frame - landscape, portrait or square. I had chosen a square frame so was looking for a balance of words covering the whole square.
Tip: once you are happy, take a snap of the layout on your phone to allow you to recreate it more easily later.

Remove the tiles and cut the Scrabble board down so that it will fit inside the box frame, cutting just inside the marks you made earlier. Depending on the type of Scrabble board you have, you may be able to do this with strong kitchen scissors, or you may need to use a small hack saw. 
Tip: you could scan in your Scrabble board and print it out on paper, letting you reuse it as many times as you want!

Now glue your letters down onto the Scrabble board - take care to ensure glue doesn't seep round the edges. When dry, you are ready to place your board and layout in the box frame.
Tip: If your Scrabble board is quite thick, you may be able to do away with the original box frame backing.

Happy Scrabbling!