Monogrammed Tote

This past week has been crazy busy. I have barely had time to read any blog posts, much less write one. We are on a countdown of 32 days until my best friend's wedding and most of my days have been devoted to making sure all of the details are falling into place. Although the thought of having just a month left to everything is somewhat stressful, I absolutely love it. I love spending time with her and being part of such an exciting time in her life. I also love the wedding planning and design part in general, which seems to be leading somewhere in itself. More on that later. 

One of the projects that I just finished is part of the bride's gifts to her bridesmaids. We found these roomy burlap totes at Hobby Lobby for only $9.99 each (You could use a 40% coupon and get one for $5.99). Since she is filling them with all kinds of goodies, she didn't want to spend the money to get the bags embroidered with each girl's initials. Instead, I stenciled the monograms on each bag with fuschia (her wedding color) acrylic paint. As maid of honor, I got to make one for myself as well, and I'm so glad because I love the result! Of course, you can never go wrong with monograms and burlap.

Monogram burlap pillow

If you haven't picked up on it yet from my other posts, I am pretty much obsessed with monograms. I feel that a set of monogrammed initials portrays a sense of neat, preppy style. It can add an interest to the simplest of things. And, of course, it lets others know that your stuff belongs to you. 

The summer weather has motivated us to begin decorating our back deck and pergola, in hopes of some late afternoon al fresco dining. We haven't officially decided on a color scheme for throw pillows, rugs, etc, but I had an idea for a pillow that I wanted to make. I decided since I was making it out of burlap, it would go with anything. I started with a 14x20 outdoor pillow form, cut 2 pieces of burlap to fit accordingly, and sewed it together. Next, I created a circular monogram of my initials using Adobe Illustrator, printed it to make a stencil, and cut the letters out with an xacto knife. I placed the stencil in the middle of the pillow cover, and painted it with "antique white" acrylic paint. I sealed the painted monogram with a sprayed coat of polyurethane to protect it from moisture. Finally, I sewed the bottom side of the pillow cover closed and took the pillow outside to see it in its new surroundings. I am thinking we will end up with a few more like this in with our backyard decor.

Mossy Monograms...again

A while back I posted a tutorial on my moss monogram letter. I loved how it turned out and it was a great detail for my friend's wedding. The only thing I didn't like about the project was the pictures. They were blurry and the lighting was completely wrong. Lately, I have sold quite a few sets of these letters on Etsy so I decided to use my latest order to try to get some better shots. 

Click here to see the tutorial!