DIY Monogram Element Craft Tutorial

We spotted this gorgeous monogram brad tutorial by Jen Jockisch and flipped out. The best part of creating your own monogram for your nursery is you can do it in any colors or materials to fit your room’s theme. Here Jen shows how to create a fantasy monogram with buttons and brads!

Supplies needed:
- Printer
- Scissors
- Cardstock
- Pen or Pencil
- Adhesive
- Paper Piercer
- Buttons and Brads (a complete list of the Elements Jen used is at the bottom of this post)
- Frame without glass or shadowbox

Jen says, “I collect A’s for my daughter Ayla, and am always looking for cute ways to make her some more. I saw a pillow on a blog that had used buttons to create a monogram and thought it would be a fun and easy way to create a wall hanging to add to her collection.”

1To create your monogram, begin by cutting cardstock large enough to fit in your frame. Next, you will need to print out a letter. I played around with it and printed a few to find the size and font I wanted, I ended up with Helvetica font at 700 font size. Keep in mind that you want thick lines in order to fill them up with buttons and brads. Then cut out your letter and place in the center of your cardstock, tracing the lines onto the paper. I used a light pen because I could not find a pencil anywhere, but I do think a pencil would work best.

Start placing your large buttons and/or brads onto the cardstock, keeping them as lined up with the edges as possible. Since we’re using rounded Elements, you won’t be able to fill the corners, but we will fill them in with smaller brads and buttons later. I used the AC tape runner to put a little adhesive on the back, I wouldn’t use a liquid adhesive because you may need to rearrange some things as you go.

Once you’ve filled up a large portion of your monogram, it’s time to start doing the filler. For this, I just used smaller buttons and different size brads. Begin with the smaller buttons, then it’s time to start with your brads. You can use all different sizes of these, you just need a small spot to poke it through, and then it can overlap with the buttons which adds a lot more dimension. I just popped them through with my hands, there’s not really enough space to use a hole punch, but a paper piercer would work fine as well.

Once you’ve covered your letter with Elements, place it in a frame. I used an IKEA frame and just removed the glass since this isn’t flat, I also think it’d be great for a shadowbox. I adhered mine to the frame on the back just to help keep it stable, the paper is fairly heavy once finished.

Stand back and enjoy your new creation! Thanks for the great idea Jen!

Send to a friend