A Simple Name or Monogram Project Tutorial

Here the background to this project. My daughter and I were talking about how she wanted her name in big letters to hang in her bedroom way back when she moved her bedroom into my old studio...late Spring? Anyway the darn things are expensive for the mom on a tight budget, so I found those big letters on sale at Joann's, you know the cardboard dimensional ones? I never see them on sale so I grabbed 3 of them intending to come back later for more and I never did. But it was o.k. cause my daughter mostly goes by her nick name anyway and those were the letter's I got. Hope you are still following this rambling.

Need for this project:
Big Letters
Paint
Felt, Fabric or Scrapbook Paper
A Good White but dries clear Fabric/Paper Glue
Scissors
Paintbrush
Optional: Ribbon, crystals, buttons, flowers etc.

O.k so I didn't originally intend this to be a tutorial but part way thru I thought "hey why not?" so that's why things are painted and I don't have a photo of supplies laid out. But you'll get the idea. These are the big letters. They are about 9" x 12". My daughter wanted zebra stripes and pink like the Christmas stocking I did for her a few posts ago. This size is perfect cause they fit the felt sheets that I bought previously.

I painted all around the edges and part way onto the front with pink gloss paint. Painting slightly on the front is important because if your fabric, felt or paper is slightly off you don't want to see the brown cardboard peeking thru and if it's painted it isn't noticeable.

Here's the paint I used, simple craft acrylic. I choose gloss cause I thought it would be easier to dust off. It took about 3 coats.

Next I took my felt sheet and flipped it printed side down. Place the letter backwards over it and traced with a pen.

At this point I realized I should probably paint the backs of the letters. I did paint the bottoms too but just hadn't done it yet here.

 I checked the fit of the felt and went back to trim them a bit.

Then I thinned out a bit of white glue with water and brushed it on the fronts and pressed the felt into the glue. When that dries you could glue ribbon all the way around the front or add paper or silk flowers or crystals or buttons and bows to jazz them up. I left them pretty plain which is how my daughter wanted them. I did this project for under $20.00.

 They now reside on top of her computer desk and she loves them. They also match her bedding too.

I hope this simple idea sparked something creative for you!

Quick Tutuorial for My Dog's Stocking..sort of

Sitting around alone in the house last night & decided on the spur of the moment to make my dog Carmelita a Christmas stocking. Then I thought I'd share with my lovely blog readers.

First I drew a quick stocking shape on a piece of card stock to the size I wanted. As you can see here the foot part is a bit short and weird, I fixed that later when I cut the stocking out. I'm always re-adjusting as I go cause thing are never perfect the first time if ever, LOL!

Then I drew and cut out shapes for my Carmelita's face. This isn't too hard, you just break everything down into flat shapes. I have the head shape, muzzle, ear, nose and eye shapes cut and ready to go.

Here's Lita bringing me her favorite toy "squirrly". She gets a bit miffed when she's not the center of attention! I had to throw the toy for a while until I wore her out, then back to cutting shapes.

Now here are the basic shapes cut of the the colors I wanted to use. I was going to do more detail on the ears, but decided that simpler was better. Even though Lita is a long-haired chihuahua I knew I'd make myself crazy doing all her ruffles and long hairs so I didn't this time. And I think you get a better idea how to make your own dog or cats face this way too.

Lita still trying to get attention by pretending to fall asleep sitting up!

Then poking her nose into everything! She then layed on my lap and let me finish. Silly pup!

I sewed and embroidered the face details together and pinned it onto the stocking. See how I lengthened the foot of the stocking? Much more balanced this way. After the face was on I then hand sewed the stocking together with a fun red thread, added a white cuff that I embroidered Lita's name on and sewed on a loop for hanging.

If I had thought about it before hand and had more time I might have embroidered some designs on the lower part of the stocking, but I don't think Lita will mind.

Here's a close up. I added some small freckles to the muzzle since my Lita has them and tacked her ears down a bit cause Lita's are floppy most of the time.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think and also if you'd like me to do more tutorials or just show final finished projects. Thanks for taking the time to read and look at this super long post and Happy Holidays!