Caffeinated Conclusions: THURSDAY TIP: Making Your Own Bulletin Board Letters

Welcome to the first post in my Thursday Tip series! Every Thursday, I'll post a tidbit of helpful information. This Thursday Tip was brought to you today by bulletin-board-making stress!

I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to how things look. I like things to match. This summer, I found the CUTEST of wall decals at Michaels. I adore wall decals. They're clean looking and require no laminating or cutting. (Score!) So I couldn't pass up the kits that were on CLEARANCE FOR $4.99. (Add a 15% discount to that and I was one happy lady.) I love(d) the pirate kit, seen in the above bulletin board.

This is where my dilemma began, however. I only own one set of (albeit) adorable pop out letters for bulletin boards. That would be this set from Creative Teaching Press.

While I ADORE these letters, I felt they were too "cutesy" for the rough and tough sword-slingers on the wall. And so I set out on a journey to make my own using my computer and photo paper! The letters you see in the bulletin board are the letters I created using the following steps. This may seem a little labor intensive but sometimes you have to go through great lengths to have great bulletin boards!!!

1. First, open up your creator of choice. Photoshop, scrapbooking software, and PowerPoint are good options for this project. (As you can see, I use My Memories Suite.) Choose the font or alphabet that you'll be using. (I went with Freeze!)

2. Type out every letter, making one HUGE letter to every page.

3. When you're done, save the document as a JPEG.

4. Upload your image to the photo printing site of your choice (ex: Walmart, Target, Shutterfly, etc.) and order your prints! (I guess you could put them on a jump/thumb drive and take them to the store as well! Or print them at home if you have lots of photo paper laying around and you're rich.) I went with 4x6's--a great size for bulletin board letters!

5. Pick up/receive your prints.

6. Cut out your letters.

7. Slap them onto wall.

8. Marvel at your work.

Here's another cute set of letters that I made for my bulletin board display in the hallway! (As you can see, I was trying to get the most bang for my buck with this one! ;)

And just because I like to share, here are the 4 pages that I put ON the bulletin board!