This is a cover image about a green 3D letter.

How to Create 3D Letters

Written by Coree Casinger

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Published on

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Reading time for 6 min

Initials, monograms, and single letters have been around for a long time when it comes to personalizing products. From towels to pillowcases, and even home decor items like door wreaths, letters make a statement. With a variety of ways to use letters in crafting, adding some dimension to letters helps to make them pop out. Pun intended!

Layering is one way to help give dimension to letters by adding a 3D effect. The Cricut Maker 3 and Cricut Design Space make it quite easy to print layered projects, and specialty adhesives like double-sided foam squares or glue dots between the layers provide a beautiful three-dimensional product. Learn more about how to layer htv to make 3D letters.

Pop-up cards and boxes are another fantastic way to provide dimension to letters to create unique 3D items. Today, we are going to look at how we can create 3D letters using everyday supplies you have easily accessible at home, and we will show you a fun, simple way to use those 3D letters in a project.

Quick in
Two Methods for Creating 3D Letters Method 1: Hand Drawing 3D Letters Step 1: Write your letter Step 2: Outline your letter Step 3: Create your shadow Step 4: Fill your shadow area Method 2: Creating a Stencil for 3D Letters Step 1: Create a letter and offset Step 2: Change color and flatten Step 3: Print and cut letter Step 4: Prepare the project surface Step 5: Transfer letter to project surface Step 6: Clean up and erase excess Step 7: Color and embellish

Two Methods for Creating 3D Letters

These items are tools to make 3d letters.

We are kicking it old school with this first method to create 3D letters! 

The supplies you will need are:

Plain copy paper

Pencil

Eraser

Easy, right? Let’s get started!

Method 1: Hand Drawing 3D Letters

Let's introduce the first method, drawing 3d letters by hand.

Step 1: Write your letter

Decide how big you would like your letter to be, and then write your letter a little smaller than the desired size.

A white piece of paper with a letter C.

Step 2: Outline your letter

Using your written letter as your guide, outline your written letter. Be mindful of letters that have inserts like A, B, Q, R, etc. Try to keep your outline at a consistent thickness all around. Erase your original written letter from Step 1. You are now left with just the outline of your letter!

A piece of white paper with the letter C in the center, add the outline .
A piece of white paper with a huge C written on it .

Tip: When learning to draw 3D letters, it is much easier to keep sharp corners on your letters versus rounded corners. This will help in the next steps.

Step 3: Create your shadow

Begin by drawing diagonal lines from the corners of your letter. Be sure to keep the diagonal lines the same length, so you create an even shadow for your letter. Once you have made your diagonal lines, connect them using straight lines, and curving the lines as necessary, as shown below.

A piece of white paper with a huge C written on it .
A piece of white paper with a huge three dimensional C .

Step 4: Fill your shadow area

Time to fill in your shadow! Depending on what you are using your 3D letter for, you can fill this shadow area with a solid color or textural element (dots, hash marks, design element). Once you fill in your shadow area, your letter will pop right off the page!

A piece of white paper with a huge 3D C letter.

Using this method to create 3D letters is perfect for posters, handmade pennants or banners, or even on materials like wood or canvas, if you are feeling brave! If you’re not quite ready to use your hand drawing skills on other materials just yet, you’re going to love this next method for creating 3D letters!

Method 2: Creating a Stencil for 3D Letters

Our supplies for this method are slightly different from the previous method. For Method 2, we are going to create a stencil.

 You will need the following supplies:

Copy paper or cardstock

Pencil

Eraser

Scissors or cutting machine (Cricut Maker 3, Silhouette, etc)

Cricut Design Space

Wood, canvas, or other material to put 3D letters on

Step 1: Create a letter and offset

Open Cricut Design Space, and create a text for your single letter. Choose a font of your liking that suits the project you are creating. Thicker fonts are more appropriate for our application and will result in a stencil that is easier to work with. 

After you have chosen your font, create an offset. For thinner fonts, choose a larger offset. For thicker fonts, choose a smaller offset. In our example here, you can see the font chosen is already a good thickness, so I went with an offset of 0.08, and that worked perfectly.

Step 1 of making the 3D letter C with software.
Step 2 of making the 3D letter C with software.

Font: Milk & Tea, a free font from Creative Fabrica

Step 2: Change color and flatten

Click the original letter text, and change the color to white. You will now see how the offset provides an outline to the letter. Select the text and offset layers, and flatten the layers. Doing so will turn your letter into a Print then Cut file. Resize your letter to a size that will suit your needs for your project. I am going to put my letter on an 8x10 canvas, so I sized my letter to 8.5” tall.

Step 3 of making the 3D letter C with software.
Step 4 of making the 3D letter C with software.
Step 5 of making the 3D letter C with software.

Tip: When resizing your flattened image, be sure to keep the lock in place so your letter will retain its original dimensions.

Step 3: Print and cut letter

Click ‘Make’ to print your letter. In the print setup box, be sure to turn off ‘Add Bleed.’ You can print after unchecking that box, or you can open your printer’s dialog by checking the box ‘Use System Dialog.’ Your printer’s dialog box will open behind your Cricut Design Space window. 

In your printer settings, I always ensure that my paper is set to plain paper and normal quality. Select print, and then cut your letter out either by hand, or by placing it on a Cricut cutting mat, and running through your Cricut machine. 

Step 6 of making the 3D letter C with software.
Step 7 of making the 3D letter C with software.
A piece of white paper printed with a giant 3d letter C.
Cut out the 3d letter C from the white paper.

Step 4: Prepare the project surface

I am using a canvas for my 3D letter, so I have gone ahead and painted my background, and have let it fully dry. When preparing your surface, be sure to pay attention to the manufacturer’s suggestions for preparation based on what medium you will be using on your chosen surface. 

This is a green drawing board.

Step 5: Transfer letter to project surface

Now comes the fun part! Using the letter you just cut out as a stencil, place your letter on your project’s surface where you would like the letter to be. Next, before tracing the placement of the letter, you are going to move the letter down and to the left, just slightly. We are going to trace the letter here first, to give us our shadow letter.

After you have traced your letter, move the stencil up and to the right just slightly. You will be able to see the outline you just created, therefore being able to see the shadow of your letter. Adjust your stencil until you like the shadow you are creating, and then trace the letter stencil again.

Place the cut out 3d letter C on the green drawing board.
Use a pencil to draw the outline of the letter C along the template.
Use a pencil to draw the outline of the letter C along the template.

Step 6: Clean up and erase excess

You will notice your shadows might not line up quite like they did in Method 1 when we hand drew our 3D letter. You will need to look at your corners and adjust your corners as needed in order to create the correct shadows, as shown below. Once you have cleaned up your corners, carefully erase the overlapped sections of your outline.

Step 1 of drawing a three-dimensional outline of the letter
Step 2 of drawing a three-dimensional outline of the letter
Step 3 of drawing a three-dimensional outline of the letter
Step 4 of drawing a three-dimensional outline of the letter
Step 5 of drawing a three-dimensional outline of the letter

Step 7: Color and embellish

Decorate your letter! You can use paint as I did, paint markers, vinyl, Mod Podge, and glitter, the possibilities are endless! I decided to go with a sunflower theme, so I used a pearlescent golden yellow and bronze for my 3D letter and then added sunflower embellishments to the corners for added dimension to the final product.

There is a yellow 3d letter C in the green drawing board inside the picture.

Tip: If you choose to use vinyl on a painted surface, be sure to use permanent vinyl, not heat transfer vinyl (HTV). Using HTV will burn your canvas, and potentially ruin the platen on your heat press if parts of your canvas melt to the top platen.

Finishing Tip: Once you’ve painted on your surface and have allowed the paint to dry completely, be sure to finish it with a sealant of some sort, in order to preserve your work. Sealants also allow you to easily dust your project! Bonus!

With so many different ways to create 3D letters, your projects and gifts will truly level up. Simple projects like the canvas we created today make for great housewarming gifts, gifts for newlyweds, or fans of monograms and initials. You could also put together a group of canvases to create panels that spell out a first or last name and hang them together. 

What will you do with your 3D letter? Create personalized stationery? Home decor? We would love to hear all about your venture into 3D letters. Go create something spectacular, and then come back and tell us all about it!