– Paper mache letters
– Pennies
– Weldbond glue or E6000
– Copper acrylic paint
– Foam brush
– Clear spray sealer, found by the spray paint
Start by painting your paper mache letters copper. I did two layers and that was enough to cover the paper mache. After I painted it copper I used a gunmetal silver color with a dry brush technique to give it a bit of a patina.
I then layed out the pennies on each letter ahead of time. That way I new exactly what pattern, and placement they were going to be in. I put most face up, but did some face down too. Then you just glue until your hearts content. When you’ve got them all glued on and they are all dry (let it sit for at least 24 hrs) you can spray them with a clear satin or glossy spray paint. I did it to protect the pennies and the copper paint on the paper mache.
LOVE it…and thought it looked familiar! 😉
I love this so much! It is the perfect way to use the penny covering trend without living with a countertop or floor forever. Thanks for the great idea. I added a link to this post on my Favorite Friday post. 🙂
http://www.nestcandy.com/2012/01/favorite-friday.html
Thanks Kara! Glad you liked it!
What did you use on the back of the letters to hang them on the wall? Thank you,
I love using pop tabs, I just hot glue them. You can use string, or pop tabs. 🙂
Thank you for responding so quickly! I love your site
Your so welcome, and thanks for loving the site…that makes my heart happy to hear. 🙂
It’s not my site but your message came to me. I’ve posted how I hung them on this site, so that’s probably why it came to me, I guess. Yes I love her site too.
Great Idea love it! Saw your post at Tatertots and Jello!
Super cute idea! I just bought the letters P-L-A-Y for my boys playroom, but hadn’t decided what to do with them yet. I just may do this! I’m your newest follower- I’d love for you to stop by my blog and follow me back if you’d like.
xo,
Laurie @ Gallamore West 🙂
You are awesome so I featured you at my Hookin Up with HoH Party!
Feel free to stop by for a button if you’d like. 🙂
xoxo
Allison @ House of Hepworths
All right, where have I been? I love the look you created with pennies…I’ve got to try a project with them! Thanks for sharing.
You are a popular gal! I pinned this project last night (about 12 hours ago) and it’s already been repinned 105 times, just from my pin! Who knows how many more have pinned their repins. Wow!! Congrats. What an awesome project. xoxo
I love the penny covered letters. Much more doable than the covered tables I’ve seen on Pinterest.
What a great idea!!! Love it!
Great project! I love the look of this!
Neat…took a lot of pennies for that wall and floor….wow
Inspired! Pinned this and would love for you to share with my readers if you get a chance: http://www.momontimeout.com/2012/01/taking-timeout-thursday-no-13.html Have a fabulous weekend!
I saw that penny countertop a while back and loved it – though not for my kitchen. I love the penny covered letters. So cool! I may give it a try.
Rachel
adventuresofadiymom.blogspot.com
Looks awesome! And thanks for the mention 🙂
Am LOVING your penny “Eat” letters!
Thought you might want to know that I’m featuring you tomorrow for Feature Friday Free-for-All!
Thanks for linking up! : )
Hope you’ll be back to share some more of your awesomeness!
~Abbie (www.fivedaysfiveways.com)
Love, love, love this project! In my dining area I have tried to bring in goldish/copper tones and I think this will be perfect! I’ll link back to your blog when I make mine 🙂
Anna Rose
The How-To Gal
Very cool… I started making this project.. just a quick question.. how did you hang the letters?
I love it! It adds shine and texture where the letters would normally be flat. Thanks for sharing!!
I Just found your blog on pinterest!!! I’m In love! Love the penny project and the other penny inspiring projects!!!
I was wondering what kind if color your friend put on her wall? So pretty
Love it! What’s the paint color called that you used for your wall?
Hi. I am starting a new series on my blog called ” Words I wish I wrote”. I will be featuring 3 things each week that I wish I wrote. Im going to feature you. I have been thinking about these pennies for a while now. Please let me know if its not ok, and I will take it down.
Kristen
Finally Copper accents for my kitchen… FOR just Pennies!
Where’s your pinterest icon so I can pin it? I love it! I’m also going to do your mirror too but in green. Thanks!!
I love the look of the silver love one, I think we’ll give it a try.
Love this, great job!
Love the covered letters. BTW, the plural of penny is pennies, not penny’s. Sorry, I am a writer and that drives me crazy!
Thank you!! I am a grammar nazi.
I’m a “real” artist and I’m not into crafts per se, but I love this. What else can we do with pennies? I hope it’s okay that I re-pinned your photo on Pinterest. That’s where I found it, but I’m sure you’ll be happy that your blog is getting a lot of hits. If you want me to take your photo off of Pinterest, leave a comment on the bottom of any article at boomerinas.com and I will see it there. That’s my blog and hotmail is messed up, so Boomerinas is the best place to let me know if you want me to delete. Fabulous idea BTW.
How did you hang the paper mache letters to the wall?
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What size paper mache letters did you use? These are fantastic cant wait to make them…
I’m currently doing this craft based off your post. I chose to do the word COOK, because Lord knows I dont need any extra encourgement to eat. Thanks for the tip though. So far so good, excited about the outcome! 🙂
Loved the idea too.
But I used wood letters.
And I want to share a helpful idea…
To clean your pennies, and give them an extra a shine.
Put in a container one table spoon of salt and add vinegar (just enough to soak the salt) You can use it as a paste and rub the coins or put more vinegar and soak the coins.
Good luck!
Wow! This is actually a good home design idea for our home especially if we are going to hold up a party or something. I love how your mixed up different kind of materials in here, this is so unique and one of a kind. I love it! Thanks,Chloe H.
I was wondering if you could use something besides the paper mache letters (or is there somewhere you can buy those?)? I know they have cardboard and wooden letters at Hobby Lobby. Would those work?
I loved this idea and copied you! Here’s my blog post about it:
http://schenkgr4.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-cubbies-and-crafts.html
Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Kayla
Stuff Students Say and Other Classroom Treasures
Perhaps fix your misspelled word? the plural for penny is pennies, not penny’s. I have been a teacher for 20 yrs. and this is a second grade grammar lesson. It would really improve your blog if it was spelled correctly.
Very nice! Like it so much I tried it myself, they didn’t turn out too bad for my first set of letters. I think my husband was counting the pennies lol. Great job, any more ideas with pennys? I’ll be watching.
HI, I LOVE THIS PROJECT AND AM LOOKING TO DO A SIMILAR ONE. DO YOU HAVE ANY FEEDBACK ON THE GLUE YOU USED? DID IT HOLD UP OVER TIME? SIMPLE TACKY GLUE HELD FOR A COUPLE DAYS BUT THE COINS ALL FELL OFF, SO I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY FEEDBACK!
THANKS!
Hi Meg. Yes it is still holding strong. Granted it’s been hanging in the kitchen of the person I gifted it to ever since, but it still looks the same. 🙂
You could also try something like E6000, just be sure to leave it lying flat for at least 24 hours while drying.
Thank you for this penny letter project. Here’s my update on making 2 sets of them. I used E6000 glue to glue the pennies. Also I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to hang them, then I had an idea to drill a hole in the back of them and it worked just great, Notch it out at the top of the hole a little so the nail will set right. It takes some patience to clean the pennies, paint the letters (both sides) then comes back with another color. Then after that spray a finish on them. But if you do like she explains they will turn out nice. Thanks again Crafted Sparrow.
Thanks Noel for sharing. I love hearing about this project, it’s been one of my most popular posts and I am thrilled people still love it. Hope you have an awesome week!
Thank you so much for this post.
We made our own about six months ago and have since added it to our blog. We did the word “grub” and I painted my letters black instead of copper. Every time someone comes over to our small apartment I instantly get compliments on the penny letters.
Thank you again for the inspiration!
Alycia, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I love that people loved this project so much. I still get so many compliments about it. I hope you have a great week. 🙂
This was my first DIY project ever! Thanks for sharing, and having such clear instructions on the project. This was totally painless.
Thanks!
Oh Melissa, that’s so awesome! I’m so glad you made it and that you enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing that with me. Have a super week.
Hi Rebecca,
I just want to reiterate everyone else, this is such a good idea. I love it so much I’m going to have a go myself. Couple of questions; By pop tabs do you mean ring pulls on can’s of fizzy drink like Coke (sorry I’m English!) Also how many pennies do you think one needs per letter?
Hi Alice. Thank you so much. I hope you do give it a try, you will love how it turns out. Yes, pop tabs are the pull top tabs that come on a can of soda or Coca Cola. 🙂 As far as the pennies go, I honestly can’t remember how many I used. I don’t have the actual letters in my home as they were a gift for a friend. I would assume that you would need at least 200+ pennies, from me just looking at the letter “E” on the photos it looks to have around 70 pennies. Hope that helps! Have fun. 🙂