Shine Bright This Season With a Star-Shaped Letter Board DIY

Letter boards are retro, made for customization (our fave), and classy-chic. With their recent resurgence in popularity, we've seen all kinds of creative takes on letter boards, from fun, colored felt to eye-catching pink and gold letters. We’ve further updated this classic by busting out of the same, been-there-seen-that square with a much more seasonally appropriate shape and... a star is born! It’s perfect for all the winter holidays, and can be used for anything from a shiny tree topper, to a festive countdown to Christmas, to a way to spread movie quote cheer. This DIY saves you major dough (letter boards are pricey), and is truly unique and super easy to make. Scroll through to get started!

Materials and Tools — 13 x 13-inch piece of cardboard — 10 or so ¼-inch square dowels ($9) — utility (X-ACTO) knife and/or hand saw — self-healing cutting pad — pencil — hot glue gun ($24) — fabric scissors ($20) — felt for border cut into 10, 2 x 6-inch strips ($10) — felt for letter board ($6) — plastic letters ($11) — metal ruler — pom-pom ribbon ($8) or tinsel ($13) for decoration

Draw out star shape onto cardboard. Draw a second line around your star. Using a ruler, try to keep the second line the same distance all the way around. The second star outline will become the frame for your letter board.

Cut out stars along both lines using your X-ACTO knife. (Hint: Use ruler to guide your knife so that you can get straight edges.) Put the solid star aside for later.

Let's make the frame for our letter board! Now it’s time to heat up that hot glue gun. Glue each strip of felt onto a side of your star. Wrap around and leave your seam on the bottom, because this side will later be glued onto the solid star board. Pro tip: Keep felt tight for a more polished look.

Trim and tidy up your edges and then put your frame aside.

Start trimming the dowels to fit the size of your star. Use a pencil to mark where you want to make your cuts. We used both the saw and the X-ACTO knife to cut the dowels. Hint: The hand saw gets through the dowel more easily, but the X-ACTO knife gets a cleaner cut.

Glue dowels onto board ⅛ inch apart from each other starting from the top, moving downward.

Spacing is very important here. We eyeballed this but recommend measuring and marking with a pencil if you’d feel more comfortable working with clearer guidelines.

Starting from the top, you’ll glue the space between each dowel and then push the felt all the way down into the board using your ruler. Glue one line at a time alternating between gluing and pushing down with your ruler. This will use quite a bit of felt so make sure you have a long enough piece before you get started.

Continue until entire board is covered. Make sure you take your time with these steps to allow the glue to set before moving onto the next line.

Trim away the excess felt, leaving an inch-and-a-half all the way around.

Glue sides of felt down behind the board and keep it tight. Now glue the frame onto your board.

And presto! You’ve got your own unique spin on a letter board.

Then you can add a little pizzazz! Pom-poms and tinsel are an easy way to make your letter board pop and incorporate some more color.

And get festive with your message!

Or quote your favorite holiday movies and songs.

And maybe humble brag about your achievements this year.

The end. Happy holidays!