How to Make Fiber Covered Letters for a Scrapbook

In the scrapbook idea for Maggie's wedding, we created a cover that involved wire letters. Some were covered in beads, others in fiber and some were left plain. Below, we demonstrate how to make the fiber covered wire letters. Begin by choosing a wire that you find easy to manipulate. We used 20 gauge craft wire. We recommend using wire no finer than 22 gauge, and no thicker than 18. We then chose fibers from our fiber embellishment cards. These cards offer a variety of textures and colors to play with. Recommended components:

Copper craft wire - we recommend the mix packs so that you can experiment with different gauges of wire, and if you choose to leave some of the letters bare, will have a fun array of colors to choose from.

Fiber embellishment cards - again this is only a recommendation. We encourage you to experiment with organza or silk ribbon, Swarovski crystal yarn or any other fibers that appeal to you.

Tools Used

Side Cutters - Semi Flush (TOOL-131)
Round Nose Pliers (TOOL-108)
Chain Nose Pliers (TOOL-106)

For the letter "A" pictured here, the result was about an inch and a half long. Modify the length of your wire to increase or decrease the size of the finished letter. Begin with about six inches of wire. Approximately one inch from the end of the wire hold a fiber against the wire and begin tightly wrapping the fiber to the wire.

Continue wrapping the fiber until you have about a quarter inch of wire showing. Holding the fiber firmly against the wire, use your chain-nose pliers to bend the end of the wire back against the fibers. Press the two parts of the wire firmly together to hold the fibers in place. There should be no need for glue or tying. Reverse the wrap, working back toward the other end of the wire and with about ¼ of an inch remaining, bend that end of the wire back on itself to hold the fibers on that end.

Form your letters using your fingers and round nose pliers. For the letter "A", we simply bent the large piece of wire in the center and made the cross bar in a similar fashion using a two inch piece of wire. After securing the fibers, we rounded the ends with our round nose pliers to give it a bit of style. To secure the wire letters to the scrapbook cover, we simply sewed them onto a fabric square, which was in turn glued to the cover of the book.