Happy Wednesday, all! My ever-growing love of yellow has now infiltrated my decor, and my boys happily don't mind. While doing a little redecorating, I realized that my large, "americana" style "B" was not going to work any more. My solution? Tear off the paper and start from scratch.
This papier mache monogram is about 3 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide. In its naked state, it is a kraft color. I could have painted my monogram, but I wanted to cover it in papers from two of my new favorite lines - For the Record by Echo Park and Portrait by Crate Paper. I also used some vintage sheet music from Scrap Rat.
I started by dry-fitting my pieces. Sometimes I used my ruler to guide my cuts, and sometimes I just made a crease in the paper by pressing it against the monogram. If you're too nervous to freehand cut, you could trace the letter onto your papers first. I wasn't too worried about perfect edges as I planned to ink all of the edges in the end.
Once I was happy with the arrangement, I grabbed a bristle brush and my bottle of Mod Podge. I chose glossy Mod Podge for this project, but any similar product or finish would work just fine. I worked with one piece at a time, applying the Mod Podge to my letter, laying the paper down, pressing out wrinkles, then covering the paper with more Mod Podge. I only ran into a few bubbles, which I easily fixed by pressing into them with the handle of my paint brush and adding more Mod Podge.
As you can see in this photo, I edged some of my seams with a piece of punched cardstock and patterned paper.
When the front was dry, I applied papers to the inside and outside edges. I left the back bare. While waiting for the Mod Podge to completely dry, I made my embellishments.
I made rolled fabric flowers in gingham and mustard yellow, as well as a lace and felt flower with a pearl center. I altered several flowers from K and Company (canvas and tulle) by scrunching the centers. Before adding my flowers, I took a walnut stain ink to the edges - the ink blended beautifully into the Mod Podge and was soaked up by the kraft papier mache. I really love the effect. Once the monogram was dry, I arranged my embellishments and adhered them with hot glue.
I plan to create a collage of the letter B in my livingroom, this one being the largest and most detailed. As my collage progresses, I'll post photos in The Studio's gallery.
Thank you for stopping by today! If you have any similar projects to share, or if you give this one a try, link me to your altered alpha here in the comments or post in the gallery. We'd all love to see. Have a great day! Tessa
Gorgeous Tessa - I'll be keeping an eye out for the rest of the Bs as they appear!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love this idea Tessa! :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Portrait and For the Record are 2 of my fave paper lines too ;)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more Bs from you!
wonderful work, I love it very much.
ReplyDeleteFrancy
This is GORGEOUS!!! I loveeeeeeeeeeee how it turned out! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
ReplyDeleteLove it Tessa - those are my fave lines, too!
ReplyDeleteLove this : )
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time on this site, and there is so much to see! This project especially caught my eye as I've been wondering how to make one of these, and what function it would have. You made this look so easy and beautiful-- I KNOW it'll be so much more work for me! LOL. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDelete