A Hug and a Kiss

“Ahugandakiss, ahugandakiss, ahugandakiss, E?!!!!!” says my 3 year old nephew every time I’m leaving my sister’s house. He calls me “E” and I love how he say’s “a hug and a kiss” like it’s one word and hopefully I’ll never forget it.

So I wanted to make something for Valentine’s Day for our door and then I saw this and this and I was inspired! First I went looking for the biggest hug and kiss a girl could find. I found these 13″ MDF letters at Hobby Lobby:

I was having a difficult time finding 3 similar shades of glitter for the graduated ombre look until Martha Stewart saved the day at Michael’s with this 12 pack, graduating colors included! Here’s a color test I did to find matching Sharpie colors for coloring the letter’s edge:

Now here’s the process and the rest of the supplies I used. First I measured for equal spacing of the 3 colors:

Next I colored the edge with the Sharpie. I should have done the color test on a separate sheet of paper and I should have colored the entire front and back (my backing failed and the background color would have enhanced the glitter on the front):

Then I painted on the Martha Stewart glittering glue with a sponge brush:

And I did 3 rounds of glitter on each color:

I saved the middle color for last to allow time for the previous colors to dry:

Here’s a detail of the edge:

For the back of the letters I traced out letters on glittery scrapbook paper and glued it to the back but it’s not sticking, don’t try this at home:

To hang, I used self-sticking sawtooth hangers on the back of the letters:

Then I ran a ribbon through the hangers and hung it from the inside of our door with an UPSIDE DOWN Command hook that can be removed later, tell it to your neighbor!