Mossy May Monogram

I love initials and monograms. And ever since I’ve been married, I’ve been tempted to buy every last ‘W’ I find at HomeGoods, Marshalls, or the like. Fortunately for my husband, I resist more often than not.

But I couldn’t resist making an initial with my friend, Elizabeth!

When I first asked Elizabeth if she’d be interested in making one, she mentioned that they actually had moss-covered Rs at her wedding. (You can see them in the background in this sweet shot.)

And afterwards she used them to decorate her and her husband’s home.

Sadly, they lost the letters and most of their possessions in a condo fire a little over a year ago. So she was on board to recreate one and make new memories.

It’s really very easy to create your own moss-covered letter! We started by printing out a giant ‘R’.

After finding a font with a cool ‘R’, I saved it as a PDF on my computer in about 400 point font. Then opened it in Acrobat Reader. In the print settings, I selected the option for ‘poster’.

It shows you how many sheets of paper it will cover in the preview and the approximate size. Ours ended up being about 16 inches tall. Just right.

To transfer the letter onto our plywood for cutting, we scribbled on the back of the paper with a pencil everywhere there was black ink.

Then we turned it over, set it on the plywood (we used 3/4″ to make our letter as big as possible), and traced the letter with slight pressure. The tracing transfers the lead of the scribble onto the plywood. So once the paper was removed, we had our ‘R’ ready to be cut!

Using a jigsaw, we slowly cut along our outline until it was complete. We quickly sanded the cuts and the face of the letter using 80-grit sandpaper. The goal was to get rid of the jagged edges and give our glue in the next step something to stick to, not make it totally smooth.

We used Titebond’s Quick and Thick Multi-Surface Glue to attach our green craft moss to the face of the letter. We let that dry before flipping it over and working our way around doing a few inches up the sides at a time. Then we cut off any excess moss and filled in any corners or other spots that were missing moss.

Unlike Elizabeth’s original ‘R’, we added some blue paper flowers (so cute from Michael’s!) on one side for a colorful accent.

I think the moss letter looks great on the bookshelf in Elizabeth and her husband’s new home!

Now can we get some champagne in those flutes for a toast to mossy monograms?! Mmm!

Thanks for Checking In! ~ Chelsea