Gold Leaft Ampersand

*I did receive product from Flora Craft for this post but all opinions are my own

Hey Sugar Bee readers, I’m so glad to be here! I’m Lindsay from Frenchie. I had the opportunity to meet up with FloraCraft at the SNAP Conference in April. They were awesome and had some awesome crafting products that I’d never had the opportunity to try until then. It’s one of those products that you know that you’ll be using for a long time.

What they sent to me were 3 boards of foam that measured 1″x12″x36″ (I ended up using 2), some Smooth Finish and the FloraCraft Styro Wonder Cutter. All of these products are available at Joann’s. I found a picture of an ampersand that I liked and I just drew it out of how I liked it.

Supplies:

• Foam Boards
• Styrofoam Cutter
• Smooth Finish
• skewers
• Stryroglue
• putty knife
• sandpaper or electric sander
• Martha Stewart Gilding Paint
• paintbrush

So to start I left the plastic on and drew a box that was 24″x18″. You can just send a file to Staples or Alphagraphics and ask them to print the text you like the best in this size or whatever size you’d prefer to go for – again, I just drew the ampersand I liked.

Once it was all drawn out, I used my foam cutter and cut very slowly along my drawn lines. If you move too fast then you may break the wand. You can cut this with a knife but the lines won’t be as sharp or as clean like you’d get with the heated foam cutter. To attach the other pieces, I used some glue on the edges and placed a skewer to connect the two pieces. They do have styrofoam connectors if you’d rather do that. Whatever is easiest for you.

You’ll next want to sand it down and smooth out the corners and edges. You’ll have a few pieces by this point but just try to get a blunt edge and the sides smoothed out. Then start with the Smooth Finish. Just use a putty knife and press it into the foam. You’ll want to do a few layers on each side, one side at a time – I did this over two days. You’ll want to pass the sander over it again but I wouldn’t use the mouse sander.

Once it’s dry and sanded, use your Martha Stewart gilding paint and paint your ampersand to give it that sheen. I hung it on the wall with some Command strips because it is so light. I love how this turned out an I love how it goes along with my DIY Stocking Holder/Instagram Display and my Advent Calendars I made with my Cricut Explore.

If you like this project, make sure you head on over to my blog or follow me on Social Media. I’d love to have you over! Thanks so much for taking the time to see this post!

XOXO, Lindsay Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Bloglovin’

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