All-Purpose Letters are just letters cut out of paperboard (aka empty food boxes). But these multi-taskers do so much! Pop them onto a string and make word banners for any occasion. Trace them to make Solar-Powered Letters even faster. Or trace and cut to make more All-Purpose Letters. This is a great way for letter-learners to get familiar with the shapes of letters and try their hand at spelling. APLs look great plain or decorated.
Quick to make, easy to store decoration for parties or everyday
Kids can trace, cut, decorate and hang their letters
Add to your letter library whenever you need a five-minute creativity break
Great way to use boxes that can’t be used for other projects
Choose a two-letter word and you can have a HI, OH, or BE banner in no time. Spell out messages for any occasion, make name banners for kids’ bedrooms, start a word-of-the-day at your house. The s-k-y is the limit with All-Purpose Letters.
Steps At a Glance:
Ready? Here’s how:
1
You’ll need:
an empty paperboard box or a large scrap
a pencil
markers or crayons, optional
hole punch, optional
scissors
Making a banner today? You’ll also need:
string. Hold the string with arms out wide to measure a handy length to work with.
pushpins for hanging your banner
Tie a loop at each end of the string so it’s ready to hang up.
2
3
A good size for All-Purpose Letters is about the size of a grownup hand, or about 6” tall and wide.
Start by drawing your letter on the open box or box scrap with pencil.
Next, draw a solid letter shape around the lines of your letter. Adjust the shape till you are happy with it.
4
Cut out the letter with scissors.
Erase the pencil lines if you want to.
Add any decoration with markers or crayons, or leave your letter plain.
5
Punch two holes near the top of the letter. Snip upwards with scissors to the hole. The snip makes it easy to string your letters, and the upward tilt keeps the letter from falling off.
Alternatively, mark where the hole will go, snip to the mark, and cut out a small hole there with the scissors.
You’re done already!
Some letters make sense from either side so you have a choice of which side to show off when you put them on the string. If you didn’t have time to decorate (or would just rather not) letters in factory printed colors look great together or mixed with plain letters.
For a banner, slip the string into the holes of your letter and hang the loops on a couple of pushpins.
Keep your All-Purpose Letters together in an envelope for next time. You can keep your string in there too!
and try this:
All-Purpose Letters are a great place to use up leftover decorations from other craft projects: glitter glue, stickers, whatever you have on hand.
You can also color right over the factory-printed colors to create a unique layered look.
These letters look great with just the factory printing as the decoration, and what could be easier? Transform the look of the factory printing on your finished letter by using the box upside-down or sideways.
Thank you for reading! If you have questions, please drop me a line.