Friday, April 2, 2010

Button Monograms

I thought I’d share a project that I did a couple months ago when my new little niece Isabella was born.  My sister-in-law is preparing a room for her big sister, Lilya, and her to share, so I decided to do a project for both the new baby and new big sister.  SIL has told me before that she’s been in a quandary about things to put on the walls, so I decided to do framed monograms for both the girls.

I got a couple of matching 11 x 14 frames from the GW.  They had great carved details, but were a gaudy gold.  (I don’t have a before pic, since this project was pre-blog.)  I painted them with a Burt Umber craft paint.  Once dry, I painted over the Umber with Black craft paint, then immediately wipe away with a cloth, to leave the black in the crevices (like a glaze.)  Then, I took some sand paper and (of course) distressed to bring out the carved details.

I found a great paisley print fabric at Hob Lob.  I wrapped the fabric directly around the pieces of glass from the frames and taped it to the back.  I hot glued the ribbon across the top and bottom.  I printed the monograms off on the computer, cut out the letters and traced them with a pen on the fabric.  For this kind of project, you want to pick a nice, wide style of letter, with lots of space to fill in. (I used AR Julian)  Once you have the monogram traced, you start filling in the letter with buttons, hot gluing them to the fabric.  (I got the buttons I used at Hob Lob also.  They came in a tube of assorted buttons, all in shades of white with the occasional metallic thrown it.  It worked perfectly for this application.)  I started with the largest buttons, then filled in with the smaller buttons.  Be sure you cover your pen lines from tracing the letter on the fabric.  This part is pretty time consuming, but the finished product is well worth the mindless work.


P1020687
P1020692


Have a blessed Good Friday!  I’m going to be on a computer fast the rest of the day.  If you haven’t already, check out the 100 follower giveaway!!



Funky Junk's Saturday Nite SpecialJoin us Saturdays at tatertotsandjello.com for the weekend wrap up party!

6 comments:

  1. What a cute idea! I adore buttons on most anything. This is creative!

    Thanks for linking it up to SNS!
    FJ Donna

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those area darling. I've seen someone on etsy that sells pillows like this, and she has to hand sew each button on. I like this idea much better!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So darng cute! Love the texture of the buttons.
    Have a great week.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those are super cute, Ann Marie. I have an extremely talented sister in law.
    Shelley

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am a sucker for anything monogrammed and these are the cutest things ever!!!
    Thanks for visiting my blog and becoming a follower...I am now a follower of yours..
    Jen from pineyflatsstyle.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

We love lovely gals showin' some love!