One of my first pins on my initial decor board on Pinterest was a button monogram. After finishing my monogram mantel, I’ve slowed down on my monogram wall art projects, but I’ve been looking for a good reason to make a button initial. I recently found a great excuse to make one, as a gift to a dear friend as part of a yearly secret pal gift exchange.
I wrote about the exchange in my February Wrap Up post and showed the awesome gifts I got from the person who had my name. Luck of the draw, and I had Lori’s name too! She appreciates vintage items, so a vintage button monogram seemed like a good addition to the gifts I was sending her.
This project was quick and easy and turned out better than I anticipated.
Supplies:
- Frame with mat
- Buttons in various sizes
- Canvas, burlap or other fabric for background
- Initial template
- Craft glue
I have a bit of a love for buttons. It started when I was gifted a big box of old buttons of my grandma’s from my mom. My first button project was button flower bouquets.
I started out thinking I was going to use Times New Roman as the font for the initial, but I decided to layout both that and a script font to see which I liked better. I was surprised but I preferred the script font hands down. I highly recommend laying out your buttons ahead of time and planning what buttons you’re going to use and the placement of them, before you start gluing.
I had intended to use burlap as my background fabric, but I searched high and low in my house for my burlap and couldn’t find it (still can’t find it). I had recently bought some canvas fabric to make a pillow cover, so I ended up using that instead and I love how it turned out, likely better than the burlap would have. I always love happy accidents!
I have a light box that I used to use for card-making, and I decided to use that to be able to see my letter stencil through my fabric rather than tracing my stencil onto my fabric. I used double sided tape to secure my stencil to the back of my fabric, ensuring it wouldn’t move around while I was gluing.
Then I started gluing down the buttons, putting a thin layer of craft glue on the back of each button, making sure not to put too much on that it would squish out the sides or through the top of the button holes.
When I was done gluing down my buttons, I let it dry for about an hour and then removed the paper stencil from the back of my fabric.
After everything was dry, I was ready to frame my button monogram. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use the glass from the frame or not. I figured the buttons would be too thick to use the glass, but in the end it wasn’t and I liked the way it looked with the glass. Plus, I figured it would ship better to Lori with the glass on it.
I may have to make one of these for myself and start rotating things around on my monogram mantel gallery. I’ve been excited to share this project, but I had to wait until the gift was shipped and received. She received them over the weekend, so now it’s safe to share! Our group often likes to send local gifts to each other. Here’s what I sent to Lori – Button Monogram, Hand Stamped Leather Wrap Bracelet, Isabel Bloom angel ornament, Chocolates from Chocolaterie Stam and some of my favorite magazines.
Do you participate in any gift exchanges? What’s your favorite thing to give?
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This is really unique! I love that it’s different from the usual printed monograms.
Thanks Dee! I’m definitely going to have to make one for myself soon!
Your button monogram is beautiful!I’m sure she loved receiving it.I’m pinning this for future inspiration.
She did love receiving it!It is proudly hanging in our front entryway and love the script!I had this pinned to attempt myself ~ I may try an “L” for my craft room.