DIY Scrabble Tile Pillows

I have had this Scrabble tile pillow idea pinned on my pinterest boards forever – since before we even started thinking of buying a new house.  My husband and I both enjoy playing Scrabble so I instantly fell in love with the idea and have been waiting for just the right time/place to use the idea.  After weeks of furniture shopping, we finally just ordered a large custom sectional for the bonus room of our new house and I knew it would be the perfect spot to incorporate the pillows.  I struggled choosing between the words “HOME” or “COZY”, but decided HOME worked best as the décor in our new forever home.

The method I used to create my pillows requires you to cut a stencil out of contact paper.  I had used this method previously to create pillowcases as part of my sister’s wedding gift (below), so I was fairly confident it would work for this project too.

For the actual pillows, I found these 15×15″ pillows at Jysk.  The cover came off easily, they were a good match to the Scrabble tile colors and at only $3 per pillow I didn’t have to worry too much in case the project was an epic fail.  I am so happy to say it wasn’t and I am able to share this project with you.

Materials Required:

– Pillow covers (1 per letter in your word)

– Home Printer

– Contact Paper (I got mine at Michael’s)

– Exacto Knife (tools section of the dollar store)

– Scotch tape

– Paintbrush

– Black fabric paint

I began the project by laying out the letters and numbers in Adobe Illustrator using the font Arial Narrow Bold.  For my 15×15″ pillows, I ended up doing the letter in 700pt type and the smaller numbers in 365pt.  Once laid out, I printed the letters off on my home computer to use as my template to cut out my stencils from contact paper.

If you are lucky enough to have a light table, that can be used to overlay the contact paper on the printed letters on cut them out.  I improvised by taping my letters and contact paper up on my patio door so the sunlight acted as a light table.  I then used my exacto knife and carefully cut out each letter/number.  TIP: When placing the contact paper, ensure the side that you peel off is facing down or your letters will be backwards.  For letters/numbers with centers such as the O or 4, you will need to keep the middle sections as part of your stencil.

From there, I placed the contact paper template on my pillowcases to determine exact alignment.  I begin by placing it with the backing still on and marking along the edges with scotch tape.  The tape then gives me a guide once I peel off the backing paper and go to stick it down.  It is a bit of a tricky process, but the contact paper is pretty easy to pull apart if it does stick on itself.  Just don’t try to reposition too much once stuck down because it results in a less clean edge.  Once stuck down, push along all edges to ensure there is a good bond and the paint won’t leak under the stencil.

The final step is to begin painting.  Place a piece of cardboard inside the pillow so the paint does not leak through to the other side and just begin filling in the open areas with the paintbrush and fabric paint.  For clean edges, always start on the outside of the contact paper and brush in towards the open area.  It is a bit tedious, but it makes for sharper edges.  Once dry, just stuff the pillow back into the case and you are done!

This method can be used for any type of image or lettering you want to put onto a pillow.  Using the Scrabble tile idea, the possibilities are endless – you could do your child’s name or initial, or spell out “LOVE” or “NAP” for your own bed.  It was a quick and easy project and I am very  happy with the final results.  Now to wait to get into our new house so I can see these on our pretty new sofa.