Turn old scrabble tiles into a piece of art by spelling out a favourite quote.

This scrabble tile craft idea was originally published in August 2016, it has been updated and republished.

I have another wedding gift from our summer of weddings to share with you today. I nearly called this "Another Scrabble Tile Picture" as making things with Scrabble tiles is something I've shared before with these Christmas Scrabble ornaments and name art.

I often buy Scrabble games when I see them in charity shops as they are a lot of fun to craft with, but that has led to my discovery that the type of tiles found in Scrabble boxes has changed over the years. I now have an assortment of different tiles but do try not to mix the different tiles in any one project.

This framed quote in scrabble tiles was a wedding gift for a lovely couple who like handmade and homemade (the bride made her own invitations) and their home decor is warm, cosy, country so I chose a wooden box frame and a pretty floral paper for the background.

Let me show you how I put it together.

How to make Framed Scrabble Tile Quote Art

To make your own Scrabble quote art you need:

A box frame - mine is similar to this one
Scrapbook paper - this pack has a similar cottage vibe to the one I used
Old scrabble tiles*
Strong Glue - I used a hot glue gun
Scrap card, a pencil and masking or washi tape
A suitable quote

This whole quote art idea is super easy to make, basically you are just gluing the Scrabble tiles onto your fancy scrapbook paper to spell out your chosen quote and popping it into a box frame - easy!

Planning out your quote

The only slightly tricky thing is getting the words central and straight.

DON'T draw pencil marks onto your pretty paper, once those tiles are glued on you just won't be able to get to them properly to rub them out.

I used strips of scrap card to space my scrabble tiles out evenly, it sounds a little complicated but it really isn’t and it ensures there are no awkward guide marks on your finished art.

This is what worked for me:

Cut your pretty scrapbook paper to the size of your box frame first then play around with the tiles until you are happy with the arrangement of words on the paper.
I wanted the same size gap at the top and bottom of my quote and then the lines between to be evenly spaced.
Measure the gap top and bottom of your arrangement and cut a strip of scrap card to that width - that's the blue card in the photos below.
Push the tiles for the top row together (it's SO much easier to keep things straight if you don't leave gaps between each tile) and mark either end on the scrap card. This is shown in big ol' black arrows on the photos.
Tape the scrap card to the top of the pretty paper, making the word gap you've marked central.
Now it's easy to glue the tiles into place, as you can push them right up against the scrap card.
Just make sure you remove your scrap card straight away before it gets stuck down too!

Repeat on the bottom, obviously leave gaps between the words as I have here!
Once the top and bottom rows were firmly in place measure the gap needed between the other rows in your quote and cut a strip of scrap card the right width.
Place this new card strip beneath the top line of tiles, the ones you’ve already glued down, and centralise your next line of tiles as before. Once you are happy, hot glue them in place.
It is really useful to have the card to push the tiles up against to help to keep them straight.

Give the hot glue time to set properly and then place your scrapbook paper in the frame.

See what I mean about this being an easy way to make quote art!

Alternatives to real scrabble tiles

If you don’t have access to old scrabble sets at the right price you can now buy fake scrabble tiles made especially for crafting. You can even get them in different colours.

Suncatcher Studios have printable downloads so you can print your own tiles onto card adn cut them out.

There are other old games that have alphabet tiles that you might be able to find like Rummikub, upwords or Bananagrams.

Scrabble Quote Ideas

This is such a personalised gift idea so you can create any quote you like. A line from a favourite song can work really well, or you could go with something really inspirational, something funny or something romantic.

You will probably want to keep it fairly short, there are limited numbers of each letter in a Scrabble set.

The ones I considered were:

Together is a beautiful place to be
Home is wherever I’m with you
Home Sweet Home
Love is the whole thing, we are only pieces
Don’t let idiots ruin your day
Be the change you wish to see in the world
Life is better with friends

We gave the couple this gift a week or so before their big day and so I felt so honoured when we arrived at the reception to find they have used this scrabble art picture as part of their wedding decorations on the top table!

Isn't their cake topper fab? As you can see they come from 2 different parts of the world which is why I chose this particular quote for them.

It's so lovely when you give a handmade gift and then discover that the recipients really do like it - for real!

I've been looking for the source of this quote but I've not been able to find it to properly attribute it, I just found it on Pinterest. Please let me know if you know where it comes from.

Julie

I'll be sharing over at these Link Parties