Monday, June 27, 2011

{diy: soft speech bubbles}

Prepare yourselves -- it's going to be a pretty photo-heavy week here at RedRed. Two new cameras (mine and Tilly's), plus a camera-themed birthday party coming up on Saturday. Phew. We'll need our shutters cleaned at the end of this week.


Today, I was making some of the props for the party. I love the idea of little speech bubbles for guests to hold, and set about making some myself out of poster board.


Have you ever tried cutting poster board? It's tough! You hack through one layer, find the tricky board in the middle, and by the time you're through to the other side, you've run out of blade. I tried scissors, a box cutter, an extra sharp fancy paper knife. What worked best, in the end, was Justin's pocket knife and it's seven inch serrated blade. I was very scared for my cutting mat (and my fingers, too), but luckily both survived unharmed.


The edges, though, looked a little rough. Okay, very rough. Like I'd cut them blindfolded. At night. One-handed. With a blunt chainsaw.

Enter half-a-yard o' cream fleece. I simply lay the poster board bubble on top of the fleece, and drew around it, leaving about an inch of extra fleece all the way around.


Ah, the scent of a hot glue gun hard at work. I put a thin layer of glue all around the edge, and pressed the fleece up (being careful not to put my fingers directly over the hot glue -- it burns even through the fleece).


Then, with a quick trim of the excess fleece from the back, the boards were covered. The fleece did a lovely job of softening the hacked-up edges of the poster board.



A few snips in a bit of felt, and we had our messages. Obviously, 'Cheese!' was needed...



... and when I looked through my stash of rejected letters I'd cut for our 'Stars at Night' hanging, the letters spelled out 'Hooray'! Perfect.


To attach the letters, I simply turned them all upside down and gave them a hearty spray with Krylon adhesive. There's a another nice smell for you. Not.


So, there you go. How to make speech bubbles for your photo booth that don't look like something Edward Scissorhands could have made. I can't wait to put them to use...

10 comments:

Carin said...

Fantastic idea! Can't wait to see the pics of them being used!

Red Red Completely Red said...

Yes, me too! I hope it works out well!

Michelle said...

Hi

What a fabulous fun idea!

Make it Monday is a paper craft linky party. I'm guessing the poster board you used for the base is made of paper and not plastic.

If it is then your entry is valid.

Thank you for sharing with us at Make It Monday this week.

Michelle :o)

Carol Browne said...

I love these! I think I will make a batch myself for some upcoming visitors! Thank you so much for sharing this.

fls said...

Totally clever. I'm so glad I wandered over for a closer look from Make it Monday.

Jill said...

Love these speech bubbles! What a great idea!

Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
Hope you have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

mamapez5 said...

What a clever idea! Your Hooray really stood for me at Make it Monday. Kate x

Shirley-Anne said...

What a fun project .thanks for sharing on make it Monday

Mary J said...

Fantastic! These are so fun and original!

Thx for sharing with us at the Make It Monday linky party!

Mary J x

Anonymous said...

Very clever. thanks for sharing at MIM
hugs Julie P