Burlap Monogram Decorative Letter

Lately I've seen several cool posts about things people have made with burlap. Honestly I have never really been a big fan of burlap...I mean I like the texture but it smells kinda weird and frays and can be a little messy. With three kiddos, I probably have enough mess in my life. After trip to Hobby Lobby I decided to come home with a yard of burlap to fool around with. I had a plain paperboard hollow letter "C" hanging around and decided to get crafting. You will notice in my pictures I also started working on a letter "G" for a friend of mine as a surprise because she liked my "C" so much.

For each letter I used about a half yard of burlap and a dozen glue sticks.

Start by folding your burlap in half once.

Cut through both layers of burlap and make 2-inch strips. It doesn't have to be exact. The wonkiness only adds to the character of the finished product.

Start with about 10-12 strips of the burlap. I think I ended up using 14 strips. How many you use depends on how tightly you pack the squares of burlap together when gluing your project together.

Next cut all the strips of burlap into 2-inch x 2-inch squares. Again they don't need to be perfect.

...and continue cutting squares out of your strips of burlap. Make lots of piles and heat up your glue gun.

Time to get out your letter and remove any stickers or store tags.

Fold your burlap square in half. Put a dab of glue in the middle and fold in half again. The edges do not need to match up exact. In fact, you probably want to make sure some don't match up just to vary how the burlap flowerettes look. Be careful when folding with the hot glue because it can and does seep out and burn your fingers.

Now your flowerette is ready to be glued down onto the paperboard letter. There really is no method to my madness. Put on a dab of glue on the burlap and squish it onto the paperboard. Again be careful not to burn your fingers.

Try to vary which edge of the flowerette you glue to the letter. Be sure to also glue burlap to any edge that you will see. It is not necessary to glue to the back.

Here you can see the back edge of the letter.


Keep gluing! You can do it!

  It took me about an hour and a half to do all the gluing. The pads of my fingers were covered in dried hot glue and burlap pieces. My workspace and floor were covered in shedded fibers from the cutting and gluing. Once you get done it will probably be necessary to give your letter a "haircut" to get rid of the fullness in between the space in the middle of the letter in order to be able to tell which letter it is.

Here it is sitting on a shelf.

...and here resting in the nook of a bookcase with his friend the pineapple.

...and hanging as a simple wreath.

...and hanging as an embellished wreath.

What are you going to do with yours? Take a minute and leave me your idea in my comments below. Thanks for stopping by!

I am linking up at:

Lightweight Lace-Trimmed Knit Scarf

Recently I found this slightly stretchy bright-colored lace at my local craft store.

After bringing it home sat next to this dark pea green knit and I knew they had to stay friends. I love the contrast of the colors. Also I am trying to get over my aversion of sewing with knits.It does seem to get easier with each try. The best advice I ever received in regards to knits was to use a brand new needle made specifically for sewing with knits. So I always follow that advice.

I bought a half yard of the green knit which measured 36"  selvage to selvage.

I started by making two equal measurements of knit. I cut my length of knit in half. So I now have two pieces of knit measuring 9" x 36".

Next sew together the 9" widths of fabric. My seam allowance is 1/2". Once they are sewn together, the dimension of the scarf will be 9" x 72". Keep in mind of course that you can make your scarf any dimension you choose.

Next stretch out your scarf and lay your lace or trim over the width of the scarf. Loosely pin down the lace.

Cut the lace to fit the exact width of the scarf.  Go to the other end of your scarf and pin down the lace. Trim to fit.  Then flip over your scarf and cut lace to fit both ends of this side. This way your scarf will look identical on either side.

Now it is time to sew through both layers of lace in order to attach it to the knit.

I sewed and square starting at the very edge of the scarf, up one edge of the lace, across the top edge of the lace and back down the last unsewn edge of the scarf.

 Once you have completed one side of the scarf, finish the other side.

This jersey knit is fabulous particularly because the edges do not fray so there is no need to finish them.I love the bold contrasting colors. Now it appears as though I need to pass an iron over my scarf. Once I do, I'll upload a photo of the scarf with an outfit.

I am linked up at:

Pinterest Inspiration

Do you use Pinterest? These days it is my favorite time mudslide. I pop on just "for a few minutes" and time slides by, and before I know it an hour (I swear only an hour) of my life is gone. I wanted to share my favorite project I have done so far, inspired by one of my pins. Here is the powder room wall collage from howdoesshe.com . I loved this idea so much I had to incorporate it on the wall behind my couch.



For the letter "C", I used MDF cut down to the same dimensions as my picture frames. I then tried several times to draw out by hand a fancy swirly "C". I'm not too good at drawing or sketching. So I finally enlisted the help of my artist friend Carly. If I hadn't, the project still probably wouldn't be done. Sad but true. I used a scroll saw to cut out the letter. The saw left the C very scraggly at the edges so it took quite a bit of sanding to get it smooth and worthy of hanging on my wall. I then covered the C in a coat of Mod Podge to seal the MDF. It is very porous so if I hadn't used Mod Podge or primer, it would have taken many, many coats of paint to cover the surface. Lastly I used a flat black spray paint on the letter "C".

I purchased the matte black frames from Michael's. The pics of my three cute kiddos were taken by my photographer friend Jean Mathewson. She has such a gift for making my kids comfortable having their photos taken and capturing them in their everyday way - not all cheesy and posed. Check out her fabulous work at www.mathewsonphotography.com

I could not be more happy with the way my wall turned out. Have you made a project inspired by something you pinned on Pinterest? I entered my project at the CSI Project for those projects that were inspired by something you pinned on Pinterest. Definitely head over there and check out some of the other entries!