Altered Letters by Debrabee!

This post is about my favorite altered and mixed media art that I have been doing since 2006. I can't find anyone that does these letters the way I do. They are one-of-a-kind and very unique. This pretty much is my signature piece of artwork that everyone knows I did it and I started it. They are very personalized to the person I give them to. I am posting several that I have given away as gifts both to ladies and gents and have done for others to give away as gifts.

Instructions on how to do these are simple, however, putting it all together can be very time consuming. I start out with the 9 inch white MDF letters from Michaels. I usually sand the edges a bit to give it a more rustic look. One of the first things I do before I even work on the letter, is make a list (or get a list from the giver of the gift) of the person's favorite things, their hobbies, family information (like kids, hubby, etc). Then I use my creativity to determine what I will put on the letter. If I am doing this for someone that is giving it as a gift, I am very clear on telling them I must have creative freedom on what I put on the letter as this comes as I create the letter and put it together. Once I have the list, I determine what colors I am going to use, the embellishments, paper, ribbon colors, etc. Depending on if it is for a man or a woman I use the appropriate amount of ribbons. For a man, I use much less, for a woman I use quite a lot. I then tear my paper pieces and place them on the letter.

Once I am satisfied with how it looks, I will glue it all down using stick glue. After the paper is down, then I start placing the embellishments, stickers, etc. to see how it will look. I will usually re-arrange everything several times until I get it perfect in my artistic eye. You may be wondering why I put paper down on the letter when I cover it all up with the embellishments, stickers, etc. I want other colors to show through rather than just the white of the letter. The paper on the base of the letter is really very little as it peeks through everything I put on top of the paper. I also think it makes a much more finished product this way. I have recently gone to printing pictures and then double and triple matting them. By using the logos and brands, you can get very personalized for the letter as you can't always find an embellishment or sticker with what you need to put on the letter. I use foam tape (pop dots) to give everything dimension when I put everything on the letters. Everyone that has ever received one of these letters absolutely loves them. I sometimes can spend 8 hours on one. It depends on how well I know the person and how much I want to fit on the letter. That is one reason I can't sell them as I would never cover the costs of my time and all that goes in to making them. I have also done this "M" as a memorial letter for someone who lost their husband to cancer. It had everything about him and their life together.

If you are not sure how to do something, please BEE-MAIL me and I will walk you through it with more detailed explanations and instructions. If you double-click on a picture it will take you into a separate screen and zoom the picture so you can see more of the details. Try one of these... you will love doing it but will love giving it that much more to someone!