Top This: DIY Sparkly Monogram Tree Topper

So now that the tree was up, it was time to get busy with the decorating. I decided I was going to stray from my usual mainly gold balls this year and go with blue and silver. I'm crazy like that.

Our current tree topper was definitely not the right shade. I always loved using the letter but the academic looking font never did anything for me so I thought I'd try to make a version from scratch.

You will need: heavy cardstock or thin cardboard, newspaper, scotch tape, an exacto knife, flour, water, spray adhesive, glitter and time.

I started by print out two copies of a letter I had drawn on my computer (or you could draw it free hand) and cutting them out. You want them to be as similar as possible. Then using the same paper I printed on, I cut up some 2 inch strips to use as the supports to turn this 2D 'S' to 3D.



Obviously I went with something a bit more swirly and complicated. If you decide to go with a more simple shape, the whole process is a lot easier. Fans of Helvetica, unite!



Taping the strips so the letter shapes to make it 3D is the most difficult part. You'll use a lot of tape. Mine looked kind of like a hot mess when I was done. Thats okay because I was just covering it all up but if you wanted to do something more streamlined (like a simple coat of paint) you would need to be more careful about making the edges smooth.



Now comes the messy part. Mix up a batch of paper mache (i used equal parts flour and water) and rip up a section of your Sunday paper. Dip the newspaper in the paper mache and apply it to your letter so that the entire cardboard 'skeleton' is covered except for a small hole in the bottom to allow for the top branch of the tree to be inserted. Now let dry.




I was hoping to have this done in a day but that wasn't in the cards. You need to let the paper mache completely dry and it took a few days here. Fast forward to magically dry and more structurally sound letter S. Now the sparkly part - I mixed up a batch of silver and blue glitter, sprayed the whole thing with spray adhesive and glittered it up. Let dry.



Voila! Sparkly tree topper ready to go. And if you are like me and happen to have a little stash of glitter laying around, this project can cost you zero dollars and zero cents. Huzzah!

Now that we're all topped off, time for balls!