Colorful Name Collage

A sign! With your child's name! To hang on their bedroom doors! That they can decorate!

It is what it is, folks. But the how is what makes it fun, beautiful, and unique to each child. These door signs, while made the same way, can be decorated any way you want.

When I asked my daughters how they wanted to decorate their names, Wren, my youngest, wanted rainbows and gems, and my oldest wanted the browns and greens of nature.

I began with the essential ingredients found in all kid crafts; popsicle sticks and glue. Then I decided to add everything under the sun! Because what else was I supposed to do with all the random art embellishments I'd hoarded in my closet?

Popsicle Sticks (6 inch size)

Elmer's Glue

Wood Glue (optional- I just had some handy and prefer it)

Glue Stick

India Ink

Decorative papers (tissue paper, construction, etc.)

Craft Gems

All the Glitter

Foam Core Board

Felt in various colors

Acrylic Paint

Miscellaneous embellishments (we all have that bin full of random decorative art stuff that we've been saving for some future project)

Adhesive wall hook

Glue Gun

The name sign begins with a basic trellis shape. This is accomplished by overlapping four sticks in a diamond pattern, which ends up looking like a tilted hashtag. Based on the size of the diamond, I figured out how long I wanted the overall length. It came out to be about 12 popsicle stick diamonds high, so at 4 sticks per diamond, it came to 48 sticks total.

As my youngest had requested a rainbow design, we painted each set of four in a different color (repeating some colors). We used India ink, but regular paint can be used if that's your preference. I liked the ink because it stained the wood rather than coating it, and it doesn't run the risk of the paint globs so commonly left behind by younger painters. It also dries faster than paint.

To obtain different saturation levels, the ink can be diluted with water, but we mostly went with the ink straight out of the bottle.

When dry, I matched the sets of four sticks to the pattern I printed out (to ensure they all came out even) then glued them together with wood glue.

When the diamond/hashtag/squares were ready, I glued them together in sections, overlapping the bottom and top tabs.

In the end, I had a long trellis chain.

Pick a font, any font! Choose whatever you want for the letters of your child's name. For my daughters', we chose the Super Mario font (they've been playing a lot of Luigi's Mansion lately), but you can choose whatever you want. Another option is to draw the letters by hand, including using your child's handwriting.

Next, I sized the letters out in Illustrator. The size may change depending on the number of letters depending on how you want them to fit. Longer names may end up needing to be sized a little smaller.

Once you have your font chosen and sized, along with a pattern either drawn or printed, just trace it out on the foam board and cut it out with an exacto knife. This part very much needs to be done by an adult.

The fun part! The "mama, are my letters ready yet?" part! Honestly, they barely had to wait, but if it's not an instantaneous construction, kids get impatient.

Wren decorated her letters in accordance with her rainbow theme. After figuring out precisely where we wanted her letters to sit on the popsicle stick trellis, we knew what color each would be. The letter 'W' would be pink/red. 'R' was orange/yellow, 'E' was green, and the 'N' was blue.

Here's where the kids get to shine:

I presented Wren with a bunch of different materials based on the chosen color of each letter. For the 'W', she picked tissue paper, which I cut into strips as I do for pinatas, and Wren glued them on where she wanted. After, I helped tuck the edges around the back to hide them. Next, I laid out every last embellishment, decoration, and doodad I had in the shades of pink and red and let her go to town. Surprisingly, she went minimalistic on the 'W'. I was expecting all sorts of chaos, but she mostly just wanted a few pompons and some sparkle foam sheets she cut into shapes herself. The beads we attached with a thin wire that just got twisted like a twist-tie in the back.

'R' was next. Given her assorted yellow and orange paper choices, she picked this pebble-esque gold paper I had acquired like, ten years ago (because I horde art supplies like a dragon hordes actual gold). I traced the 'R' on the paper, paying attention to the right and wrong side of the sheet, and cut it out for her. She then very meticulously glued it on the foam board. I dragged out all my pretty art stuff to match, and she glue-sticked on everything she wanted, where she wanted it. Minimalist again! Stars and tiny wood-shaving roses!

As a side note, there is no precision when using a glue-stick. We overcame this by scooping a chunk of the glue-stick onto a mini popsicle stick which she used almost like a paintbrush.

'E' and 'N' had the exact same process, with one exception - GLITTER. Suddenly, she was all about the glitter. She topped the gems with it, put it in random spots, and doused the whole of it with a dusting of her hands. It's a good thing I like glitter too. She also requested that I draw a heart on the 'N' in glue, which we then dumped glitter on. To mimic stars more closely, she used a paint brush to flick little white specks on the blue paper.

Depending on preference, you can paint the sides of the letters to hide the white foam. We did it for Wren's, but my older daughter wanted it left white.

You'll notice in these pictures that some of the letters have felt backings, which is the next step! It can also be done before decorating, but I found it easier to do after the fact.

To give the letters a little bit of pop and oomph, I backed them with felt. The easiest step of all! Using my letter patterns, I made new patterns, adding a rough half-inch border on the outside. I traced that out onto my chosen felt sheets (1 for each letter) using a fabric marker, cut them out and hot-glued them to the back of the corresponding letters. I couldn't find a yellow I liked to go with the 'R', so I coated it with a nice shade of gold acrylic paint.

The letters are ready; they have been decorated and assembled, and now they must assimilate!

Just hot-glue them to the trellis where you want them. I marked the popsicle sticks with a pencil to keep track of where I needed glue, then dotted those spots with hot glue and carefully positioned the letters onto the trellis.

But we're not done! We need more gems!

Wren dabbed Elmer's glue onto the sticks that weren't hidden by letters and stuck little rhinestone gems wherever she deemed worthy.

NOW, we're done. Aside from hanging it up, that is. An adhesive-strip wall hook made it super simple, and the natural shape of the diamond popsicle stick trellis let us just hang it right on.

This was a fun project. My girls and I got to spend time together, and we each helped craft something beautiful, with a purpose.

I haven't included the full design of my eldest daughter's name hanger, as I didn't want to complicate the instructions, but it pretty much went the same way. However, where Wren needed to be guided, materials and color-wise, my older daughter had her own themes and ideas and a plan to execute them and needed only a little guidance. She went to town looking through all my art supplies. The only thing I really had to do for her was cut the foam with the exacto knife and hot glue a few items. The last two pictures show two of her letters, the 'U' and 'I' of her name.

The thing I like best about this project was that skill didn't matter, the end result looked beautiful no matter the age or ability.

Thanks for reading!