DIY Bride Guide: Marquee Letters

Hi! I'm Maverick12 and I'm a DIY Bride.

I love the theatre. I'm a lighting girl - what can I say? There's a thrill to good lighting. These marquee letters seem to be all the rage these days, but have you seen their prices! These are simple to make and look great. I wound up using this behind my cake and was gorgeous.

Step 1: Supplies

For supplies on this project I'm using the following:

(2) cardboard letters - found at a craft store

(1) box of globe lights - found at target

craft knife

hot glue

tape

tissue

Elmer's glue

spray paint

acrylic paint

paint brush

Step 2: Cut Out Letters

Using your craft knife, cut along the edge of the letter into the open center space. This is a slow detailed process. This edge will be visible in the end, so its best to take your time. I found that cutting mine in sections made it easier to handle versus trying to go around the entire letter at once.

Do this to both letters. Make sure they are facing the same direction. The "S" in particular does actually go one way.

Step 3: Holes for Lights

Flip one of the letters over. This will be the top letter.

Hold one of the light bulbs up to see your spacing. This helped me estimate where the first one would go.

I measured mine to place the center of the hole in the middle.

Mark using "x". This will help later.

Mark all of the locations you want a light to be. Because I'm putting two together, I left a couple light bulbs between the letters. I wound using approximately 10 lights per letter.

Next, using a craft light, cut the "x" marks.

Gently fold one of them back and wiggle the light bulb holder into the hole. Remove and bend the flaps back. Put the light bulb holder back in, tucking the flaps back.

Hot glue in place.

Step 4: Running the Wire

Pushing the light bulb holders through leaves a lot of wires around the back. This is where the second letter comes in handy.

First, gather the wire and tape it to the back of the letter. Place this letter on top of the other one. (Remember it's already been cut out!)

Mark and cut a notch where the wire needs to exit.

Tape the top letter to the bottom letter. I ran my tape all the way around. I did it in several places as well to hold it all.

I found that "J" was easier than "S" because I cut the S in two different directions.

Step 5: Seal the Seam

Next I wanted to seal the seam.

For this I treated it almost like paper mache. I used Elmer's glue and painted into on the seam. Then I placed tissue paper onto the glue and put more glue on top.

Allow this to dry.

Step 6: Decorate

To protect the light bulb holders I stuffed torn up cotton balls into the holders. It actually worked way better than I expected.

I used a blue spray paint and covered the letters in two coats. I think next time I will use an acrylic though.

Then, once that was dry I painted the layer behind the lights in a reflective silver acrylic paint.

Remove the cotton balls and screw in the lights and you are done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. It worked out way better than expected.