Let me start off this post by saying word games are my LIFE. I mean it. I admit I have a problem. If you were to look at my phone you’d see that I literally have 12 active games of “Scramble with Friends” going against Kara, each game in different stages of completion… and I’m winning every game! 😉
I grew up playing Scrabble and Boggle with my family. It’s always fun to put down the phone version once in awhile and get all nostalgic and just beat Kara in regular Boggle. 4-letter words minimum!
So before Winnie was born I knew I wanted to pass on my love for word games to her. She can’t play yet, she’s only 4 months (so she just plays Kara, haha). When it came to decorating her nursery I knew I wanted her name spelled out in wooden Scrabble tiles!
I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m no Tim the Toolman Taylor when it comes to Tool Time. I have gotten a little bit better over the years though, but I wanted this DIY project to be fairly easy. In the end it really couldn’t have been any easier. It doesn’t require many tools and I really love how the finished product turned out and the impact it has on the nursery.
So here’s how I did it:
I started out with tiles I found on the internet. I chose to laminate them, but you can also print them on thick card stock. You want to print the letters to fit your tile size, mine were 8″ x 8″, and then cut the paper so it fits perfectly over each tile.
Note: We knew we wanted 8″ x 8″ tiles that were 1″ thick, this is because Home Depot sells 8″ x 1″ by 10′ boards! This way you only have to make a cut every 8″ on the board to make a new tile. After you cut them make sure to sand around the edges. You can make them any size you want though…
I used a razor to cut the black part of the letter and corresponding number value. I used a steel ruler to help with the straight lines, you don’t have to be perfect here but I have OCD so each letter took me over 3 days to complete.
I taped the tile stencil we cut out onto the wooden tiles with painters tape and used a 4″ foam roller and some grey paint. I found it easier to roll in one direction, the lines came out crisper.
After painting the tiles, lay them out for an hour or two to dry up.
Now you’ll want to flip them over face down onto a towel and hammer in some picture hangers, they are not that heavy so one picture hanger did the trick for me.
Make sure you hammer them in all the way! This one could still use another whack or two.
Hang em’ up and pat yourself on the back for a job well done! The options are endless with these tiles. We chose to do the nursery and just Winnie’s name, but you can opt for a cool pattern with connecting words.
Believe me, if I can do this you can too! And if you do try to make these please come back and tell me all about how they turned out!
Here is a file you can use to print out the letters, enjoy: DIY Scrabble Tiles
