DIY Concrete Letter

This instructables will show you how to make concrete letter easily, using near-to-hand materials. Though it's a little tricky to make a few concrete letters, such as 'F, J, Y, P, O'.... I'm hoping to post another ible on that very soon.

But for now, I made a concrete 'M' and I was surprised to find out how easy it is to make concrete letter :)

To make concrete letter you'll need:

1. Concrete or cement and sand),
2. Bucket or pot (to mix the concrete),
3. Rubber gloves,
4. Cardboard (to make the mould),
5. X-acto knife,
6. Pencil and ruler,
7. Hot glue,

Sketch a letter of your choice on a cardboard and cut it out with an x-acto knife. Mine was 'M'. The width of the letter should be at least 1 inch, you can increase the width if you want to.

Now cut out 2-3 inches wide cardboard strips, long enough to cover the sides of the cut-out letter.

Glue the cardboard strip around the letter using hot glue,

When a strip ends, add another cardboard strip from that end and wrap a brown tape on the joint part to make sure that there's no gap between the strips.

This cardboard letter box will be the mould.

This step is really important.

The cardboard will absorb water and ruin the mould, so I wrapped the outside of the cardboard letter with duct tape.

Wear rubber gloves before mixing the cement.

Measure 2 parts of cement and 3 parts of sand.

Mix them very well,

Pour a small amount of water into the sand and cement mixture and mix them well with the water,

Pour more water if the cement mixture is too thick. But keep in mind not to make the mixture too thin or too thick.

Place the mould (cardboard letter box) in a hard, flat surface,

Carefully pour the concrete mix into the mould (cardboard letter),

Try to fill the whole cardboard letter box equally.

Allow the cement to dry overnight (or at least 24 hours).

When the cement will dry you can easily get the concrete letter out of the mould.

Carefully remove the sides of the mould and then the rest.

If you want the letter to have smooth surface you can use sand paper to get a smooth finishing.

But I liked the rustic look rather than the smooth finishing.

Like always, I had to add some gold paint to it! The combination of concrete and gold looks awesome ^_^

Use fabric paint to color simple designs on the concrete letter,

Allow the paint to dry.

You can lay the letter flat or stand it straight as you want. I had fun making this concrete letter and it looks great too.

Enjoy!