Antique Button Monograms

Hey you guys!! I am so excited to show you my latest crafty goodness!!! :0)

My mom and I were out shopping at our local Peddlers Mall and I saw these two old frames tucked away in the back of a booth.   They had $8.00 each on them…um no, I didn’t want to pay that. My mom was buying another item from the same booth and she called and talked them down on both items…hers and mine!  Thanks mom!  I paid $5.00 each for these lovelies! 

I had no idea what I was going to do with them when I bought them, but I knew I loved the old patina and chippy paint, so I got them anyway.  On the way home I said to my mom…”OH…a monogram!”  I decided they would look great with a monogram in them!

There was no glass, backing…nothing, so I cut up a cardboard box to make a backing for each frame. Easy peasy!

….and they fit right in!

I used my cardboard circles as a pattern for some scraps of drop cloth I had in my fabric stash.  I cut the circles out and then ironed them…….drop cloth wrinkles …a LOT!

I used this spray mount from 3M to get the fabric circles to stick onto the cardboard circles.  I just sprayed it right onto the cardboard, then laid the fabric on top…making sure to smooth the wrinkles out before I stuck it down.

Then I got on my trusty NEW computer and found a lovely script font.  I printed out an M and T in a VERY large font size to use as a template.   I actually printed out two of each one….I’ll show you why in  a second.

First I want to show you what I used to make the monograms…. I dumped out my big blue ball jar full of these…..

Antique buttons! Aren’t they beautiful?! I love all the different creams, whites and metals!

Ok…the reason you need two of each of your script font print outs is this….you need one as a pattern to lay out your buttons on….(sorry they’re fuzzy, but I wanted you to see what I did anyway and they’re the only ones I took)….

The second print I used as a stencil……I cut it out and centered it in my frame on the fabric like this…

After I centered them in the frames, I used a piece of chalk to fill in the stencil so I could see the monogram…

See…..

Then I got out my handy dandy glue gun and started transferring the buttons from the paper, to the fabric.  I did layer some of the buttons, so you’ll want to make sure you put the bottoms buttons on first. :0)

See how I layered the buttons on top of each other to give it a little depth and interest…..

Notice how I used smaller buttons at the starting points and larger ones at the beefiest parts of the letters…then I layered some more on top once I got the bottom buttons in place.

Here are some pics of the finished products……

Now I just have to figure out where I want to put them!  I’m thinking I might put them in my dining room when all is said and done.  My dining room is going from fancy formal to farmhouse fresh a little at a time! :0)  Yay!

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial!

Love you guys bunches!

Missy

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