DIY Concrete letter

I love, love the look of the rustic concrete letters, but the price?  Not so much. Being the DIYer that I am, I decided to make my own. I knew I'd need a form to pour the concrete into, but buying one of those was out of the question too!  This project had to be cheap, and by cheap, I mean FREE!  

I printed a large B from my computer, I used Franklin Gothic Demi font, it looked like a good, solid font with no curly cues or swirls, or little pieces that I thought might be hard for a first timer. I made mine about 8" tall and about 6" wide. I wanted it bigger, but then was reminded it will be made of concrete, so smaller may be better. 

I taped my printed letter onto a piece of cardboard (I used the bottom of a Mason jar box), and traced the B onto the cardboard by pressing firmly all the way around. 

Then, I removed the paper, and went back over the outline just to be sure I could see it well enough to cut it. You could trace your letter by any number of methods, this worked just fine. 

Next up, time to cut!  I started with my rotary cutter and shaved done the size of the cardboard I was working with just to make it easier. Cardboard is not easy to cut!  Then, I used scissors to cut the outer edges. For the little openings in the middle, I used my craft knife.  

Here it is, all cut out, ready to be the base of my concrete form. 

Once I had this base finished, I cut some narrow-1.5"-strips of the cardboard to use around the base to make a form. 

I used masking tape, you could use painters tape or whatever you have. The below pic is a little blurry, but shows you the bottom of the form once taped. I also used my hot glue gun to fill in cracks. I didn't want the concrete leaking through. 

My hubby mixed up some of this concrete we had left over from our deck re-do this summer according to the directions on the bag. 

I used this and it worked fine. My preference would've been to use a finer, less coarse, concrete mix. This has a lot of larger rocks in it as it's mean for things like post holes-which is why we bought it for the deck posts. So, if you're buying concrete I would suggest going with a finer mix. Once mixed, he scooped the concrete in to my form, filling it not quite to the top. If you try this, be sure to wiggle, tap, shake gently your form to get the concrete to settle evenly. Then, we set it outside to dry. 

After letting it sit for a little more than 24 hours, I just peeled the cardboard form off, very simple, the concrete hadn't stuck to it. You can see in the pic below, the form is still fairly intact after removing the concrete. 

The B had some rough edges on it, the cardboard was corrugated so it left some ripples on the outer edge. The good thing about this stuff is that it sands down very easily. So, I took a piece of coarse sandpaper and smoothed it down. 

This is after the first pass with the sandpaper. I love it!  I didn't want it too smooth or polished, I wanted a rustic look, after all, it is concrete. 

Close up view of the finished product. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Have you ever worked with concrete/cement?  I'd love to see your work.