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Rope Word Art Tutorial

Each month as a Lowes Creative Ideas Blogger, I am given various DIY challenges to complete. For the month of June, I chose to take on the challenge of creating “rope decor”. In the past, I have made jute napkin rings, jute wrapped lampshades, and rope nests, so I knew from previous experience that working with rope is fairly simple and fun. For this project, I was inspired by an image I saw in the summer Pottery Barn Teen catalog of a dream sign made out of rope. How fun! I chose to make rope word art for our dining room to celebrate the beginning of summer. The great thing about this project is that it can be customized to fit your choice of word. I think it would be cute to create a child’s name in rope for their bedroom or a birthday.

how to make rope words

Supplies Needed:

For this project you will need the following materials.

Rope letters tutorial

Step 1: Prepare your work surface and outline your letters.

Spread out your butcher paper on your work surface to protect it from any glue drips. I found it easiest to work on the floor. Place your parchment paper or wax paper over your butcher paper. Determine how high you would like your letters to be and measure and draw lines on your parchment paper. I chose to create 8 inch letters for my word so drew a horizontal line 8 inches from the bottom of my parchment paper. If you need to, sketch out your lettering on your parchment paper.

Step 2: Mix your glue and create your lettering.

Before mixing my glue, I lined a mixing bowl with a disposable plastic bag to create a no-mess and easy clean-up solution. Next, I recommend mixing half a cup of corn starch with a few tablespoons of water to create a blended paste. (I had some lumps of corn starch in my mixture that could have been avoided by utilizing this step.) Once the cornstarch is blended, add your bottle of glue and mix until combined. With gloved hands run the rope through the glue mixture until thoroughly coated and spell out your word on the parchment paper. The rope with glue will  look yellowish when wet but will dry clear.

Dip rope in glue to make rope words

Step 3: Allow to dry.

My rope was rather unruly and was attempting to escape it’s form. When my rope was mostly-dry, I reshaped the unruly letters and used heavy objects to hold them in place until completely dry. I didn’t have any trouble removing the objects the next morning, but you might want to place another piece of parchment paper over the rope if this is a concern.

Rope words

Step 4: Attach the rope art to the wall.

I used painter’s tape to place the rope art to the wall and then used small brad nails to attach it to the wall. My word had some flexibility to it and was not completely stiff, so I did need to secure it with nails through the rope.

Making rope words

Yay for summer! I love how it turned out and that it adds a simple celebration of the season to my dining room.

Summer Rope Sign

DIY Rope Words

For even more #springiscalling ideas, visit Lowes Cre­ative Ideas and fol­low along with Lowe’s on Pin­ter­est or on Insta­gram! You can sign up to receive their free Cre­ative Ideas Mag­azine, which is full of all kinds of ideas & inspi­ra­tion! There’s also a mag­a­zine app so you can have inspi­ra­tion on the go! And, this spring you can get weekly projects, tips & special values with the new “Improve with Lowe’s” app.

summer LCI badge
Dis­clo­sure:  I am a mem­ber of the Lowe’s Cre­ative Ideas Cre­ators & Influ­encers Net­work and receive a Lowe’s gift card to com­plete my projects. All ideas, opin­ions, & tutorials are my own.

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Comments

  1. Ariana says

    I love this! Do you think adding more cornstarch would make it more rigid? Or do you think a thicker rope would make it more rigid?

    • Beth says

      I would definitely experiment with the wood glue and cornstarch ratio, or perhaps use a different type of glue. I’m not sure a thicker rope would work as well as the thinner rope. It gets difficult to manipulate the rope into a word when it’s thicker.

  2. Stacy says

    I’m looking to make a rope word on a plaque for to display our boat name (knotty hooker) our pontoon rebuild. Do you have any recommendations as far as a water proof adhesive or which rope would do best with the amount of exposure it’ll get? Appreciate any advice you may have.

    • Beth says

      Hi Stacy, I’ve never tried to make this to stand up to such harsh elements, so I’m not sure what product would work best. Natural rope would absorb resin and glue the best. Perhaps some type of marine epoxy would work?

    • Beth says

      Nylon rope might be trickier to work with because it won’t absorb the glue as well. I haven’t tried it with a synthetic rope before so can’t really say.

  4. jESSICA says

    Thanks for the sharing! Just tried it out! Hope it turns out great; like yours! Made My sons name for his nursery 🙂 will continue to follow and watch for more creative projects! keep up the great work!!

  5. Elyse says

    Hi there! This is so cool! Thanks for the post! Do you think I would be able to do this with twine? Would the glue be too strong?

    Thanks so much!!
    elyse

    • Beth says

      I haven’t tried it with twine, but I say why not give it a shot. At worst you’ll have a craft fail and at best something pretty cool! The twine is so thin that getting it off the parchment paper will be very tricky. I might use an old silicone baking mat, or something you can peel the twine off of. Let me know if it works!

  6. Darlene Augustine says

    I love your creativity! I love brousing the internet for ideas & I know this is one that I will use. Do you think craft glue would work? If I may ask..What does the corn starch do? Thank you for sharing your great idea!

  8. Alyssa says

    love this and it’s just what I was looking for! Thanks!! Do you think it will work with other types of rope? I already have some white ropes on hand that you could maybe consider nylon? It’s a smoother texture but it’s what I wanted to use, just don’t know if it will work in this same way!

    • Beth says

      I was originally going to do this project using a white nylon rope as well but was worried that the nylon would resist the glue since it doesn’t absorb the glue like the natural fibers in rope. I’m not sure that wood glue would work but perhaps a different glue might. Let me know if you try it and if it turns out!

  9. Heather says

    Thank you for this tutorial. I’m going to do this above the crib for my western nursery. I think his name with a lasso at the end will be adorable. Any advice on flimsyness bc his name is William?

    • Beth says

      That would look look very cute! I used small brad nails to tack my word to the wall and it worked great.

    • Beth says

      Thanks Susan! It’s a very easy and fun project. Thanks for stopping by and visiting me. 🙂

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