Eric Carle-Inspired Letters using Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Picasa

The crafts for the boys' Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed birthday continue with these Eric Carle-inspired letters that I want to use as cake toppers.  

I've written a tutorial on how to create these letters using the common programs Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Picasa.  

Creating Eric Carle Letters with Microsoft Powerpoint, Word and Picasa

Download Paper Cutout Font free here http://www.petflow.com/invite/uu8703518 and install into Microsoft Word

Open new document and change font size to size of letters you want – I used about 400 point.  You can also resize later.

Type your word and leave extra space around the letters

Using snipping tool capture each letter individually and save.

Import into Picasa.

Use the image processing tools to convert your letters to Pencil Sketch (optional) and save.

Open Microsoft Powerpoint

Insert one of your saved Sketch letters. Size it larger or smaller as desired.  In the Drawing menu select the scribble tool. Trace over your letter.  Doesn’t have to be perfect because you are going to cut these out later.  After completing the tracing, format the line to be about 2point and black if desired. (i used a red line here for illustration purposes)

Insert your Texture Background  (SEE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW) onto the page.

Find your traced letter and bring it to the front (right click and bring to front)

Place it over your Texture Background.

Repeat with several letters to make the most of the texture background and your ink!

Print on card stock and cut out letters.  Tape letters to skewers if desired.

Creating Eric Carle Texture Backgrounds using Eric Carle Graphics

(I used the Eric Carle Garland letters but you could even scan images from the books)

Scan the colors/images you like and save the images

Open in Picasa and crop one or two sections of the image and save those crops (you only need to do this if there are words or images you don’t want obstructing your desired texture…)

Open Microsoft Powerpoint.

Insert your images. Copy paste and rotate to create a solid swatch of your texture.  Group the individual elements (select all) and save as an image.  Now insert that image into a new Powerpoint page and crop found in the format menu) it to be square-ish if desired.  Save it.

a section of the purple texture i wanted to use

several patches of the purple crop aligned together

the final purple texture background image

Stayed Tuned in Early September to see these cake toppers in action at the birthday party!!