Hive: I need your help! Follow along, will you?
It all started with these:
{source}
{source}
In an effort to be brave and crafty (…and thrifty?) I opted to make some oversized floral letters with the help of Mr. Seashell. The plan was to hot glue petals onto cardboard letters and then hang the letters with gold ribbon outside the front doors of our wedding venue. We purchased our supplies and began gluing.
All was going well enough, right?
But here’s where I run into a problem. All along I have been bothered by the petals being stark white. Our wedding colors are ivory and gold, and I’ve wanted to do something to make the letters look more ivory. Or gold. So this weekend when we were buying the supplies for our sparkly wands, I grabbed some gold fabric spray paint. And then I sprayed.
Now the letters look kind of..um…off. I’ll even say ugly.
Mr. Seashell kindly picked up a bottle of ivory spray paint at The Home Depot yesterday to address “the problem”. Before I spray these puppies in HOUSE PAINT I’m turning to you for suggestions. Are these letters salvageable? Ideas?
Help this crafting-moron before I do something irreversible. And don’t tell me they look good. They look like I shaved a goldendoodle and hot-glued the evidence.
Try evening out the gold. You can tell where its heavier so go over the lighter spots. After that if you still dont like the way they look go over it with the other spray paint.
haha! I literally laughed out loud when i saw your “goldendoodle” comment.
Can you just go forward with the gold and spray spray spray to get it more even looking?
I think spray paint done in **light** coats would solve the problem. Even making the gold more even would improve them. I would almost stick with the color you’ve already got, just to make sure you get a more even coverage. It’ll take a lot of coats to cover metallic gold with a glossy ivory.
Hmm I say if you’re unhappy spray them ivory and then maybe you could just dust them with some fine gold glitter. Glitter’s always my go to craft supply. Good luck!
Try hand painting the gold to even the paint out. Where did you fing your big letters?
I just laughed.out.loud! Goldendoodle…HAHA!
I wish I knew anything about painting faux flowers, but all I can say is…some projects aren’t salvagable. If the ivory spray comes out looking “off” you may just want to start over. Good luck!!
I don’t think they’re as bad as you think they are, but I’m dying at the goldendoodle thing!
I was totally about to tell you they looked good, haha. Goldendoodle. In any case, I dont know what you can do to save them, I am not very crafty either!
I agree with the even out the gold suggestons. I think i looks great you just need more paint. If you are worried about the two tones of gold then maybe use ivory ribbon — but the two tones work well in my opinon.
Yeah I think they look really good, and will look better with the gold evened out.
Where are the cardboard letters from? I have been in search of something light like that.
i agree with some of the other ladies that just evening them out might help considerably
Thanks for the tips!!!
@weddingnOct, @ablet: The letters are from JoAnn Fabric and Crafts. I think they were about $12 each.
Honestly, those don’t look that bad. I would be hesitant to spray fabric with regular spray paint. It seems like it would be too heavy/thick/etc for something as thin as those flowers. I know Joann’s carries fabric spray paint (Simply Spray), maybe they have an ivory color?
You poor thing!!! I am a floral and event designer and I have actually made a couple of these bad boys in fresh and artifical flowers before. The first think you should have done (and I know this is too little too late but for others thinking of doing this I feel this is important) is you should have painted the card board letters ivory so the covered easier and blended better. As for where you are right now I think that if you spray too much gold paint the letters are going to loose some texture, I would try glueing on some more petals to make it “fluffier” and re spraying them with the can farther away to create a “golden dusting”
Bahaa, I just realized my comment didn’t really make sense. What I MEANT to say was that I think they’re gorgeous, and not really a fail at all. Sorry. Moving makes my brain not really work. 
I would use an ivory to go over that.. and then use the glitter as someone else suggested..
Maybe spray them with gold to even it out (holding the can farther away for a more even coverage). And once it’s dried… isn’t there an adhesive spray (like clear aerosol glue) that you could spray and then dust with silver and gold glitter?
I agree with the others, maybe evening the paint out would do you well. My advice is to spray s’more, and get it all gold-looking, then glue more of the plain white ones to it. It might be good to glue whole flowers onto the gold letters instead of just petals. Also, what 773 miles away suggested was good, too!
Mrs. Seashell, Chicago, IL / Providence, RI Age and Occupation: 28, Marriage and Family Therapist Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Electrical Engineer Engagement Date: September 3, 2009 Wedding Date: September 2010 Venue: The Glen Manor House About Me: Fonts and fashion, stationery and Sundays, photography and french toast... the beauty is in the details for this fun-loving Chicagoan who loves to plan plan plan! The soon-to-be hubs plays "Mr. Fix-It" in our new condo while I swoon over beautiful, personalized stationery and choose shades of aubergine for my bridesmaids' dresses... and thus begins my new fairy tale! Skirting to the East Coast for our September nuptials where my home state of Rhode Island awaits with fall foliage, I'm just a few dress fittings and bachelorette party away from saying "I Do" to a very happy ending!
Latest Gallery Pics