Burlap Monogram with Felt Flowers

I love autumn. It’s no secret. Not only is the weather (usually) phenomenal (though I feel like it’s been 90+ degrees most of September here in St. Louis) but Mother Nature really outdoes herself with rolling hillsides of gorgeous color. I love to bring those colors into my home decorating as well, even if they aren’t part of my everyday pallet.

So two years ago, I made this adorable door hanger for our front door from a canvas, fall inspired fabric, and an espresso wooden monogram letter. I had gotten the idea for this affordable door hanger from Laurie over at Passionate Penny Pincher.

You see, Laurie shares all kinds of deals and ways to pinch pennies…one of my favorites being how to decorate on a budget. Her “Friday Fluff Ups” are my absolute favorite! So when I saw her post this updated burlap door monogram a couple weeks ago, I knew I had to update mine as well!

I decided to reuse the canvas and monogram letter I used for the old door hanger so I had to do a little deconstruction before I could get started.

I used a screw driver to pry out all the old staples and used the old fabric as a template for the new burlap covering.

On Laurie’s recommendation, I doubled up my burlap so less of the white canvas would show through. At $2.30/yard (after a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby) it didn’t bother me to do that (I still didn’t even come close to using the whole yard…now what to do with the rest of that burlap??) Be sure to pull your burlap layers nice and tight and staple frequently to hold it in place. The corners were a little tricky but I found if I did two separate folds…like this…

And then this…

I ended up with a pretty nice looking corner. (Keep in mind this is the back and only layer one of burlap…looks even better once the second layer is on.

Once the burlap is all attached (and by the way, I don’t own a staple gun…I used a regular stapler-ha!-and it worked just fine) you’re ready to trace your monogram letter with a black sharpie marker. I used my old wooden letter but if you have a steady hand you might be able to freehand it…I’m not that talented!

Then just color it in…

Keep coloring…

Ok you get the idea…I grabbed another sharpie and went over it one more time once it was all filled in to make it a little darker/more even.

Then I reattached the hanging ribbon and hung it on the door! (I am not the biggest fan of our forest green front door…hoping to change it up in the spring. Shhh…don’t tell Hubby.) 😉

Buuuuuut then I decided it needed something else…and I remembered this fall wreath with felt flowers I had on my Pinterest board and knew what I had to do! So I looked up a felt flower tutorial, played around with some scrap felt, and then got to work!

First, I made a simple harvest gold flower (ah harvest gold…you adorned some of the best working kitchen appliances in my childhood…lol.) For this flower I freehanded a circle on my felt and cut it out.

Then I cut a wiggly spiral all the way to the center of the circle.

Then I roooooooolled it up and put a tiny dot of hot glue and the end to hold it together. Try to roll it so it is fairly flat on the backside. This will help you attach it later. Voila! Flower number one!

Next, I made a darker lilac fringed flower. Super easy. I cut a strip of felt (the wider you cut the strip, the longer your fringe can be…go with whatever scale you are looking for.)

Then cut fringe all along one side. (Be careful not to cut all the way through.)

Then rooooooooolled it up so it is flat on the back. See what I mean?

And secured the end with a touch of hot glue. Ta-da!

Lastly, I made a cornflower blue looped flower. Time out. Orange burlap, a gold flower, a purple flower, and now a blue flower? I know, I know. I wanted to colors to pop (I think they do), but not clash (but maybe they do), and give it a unique look (this they definitely do!)…maybe using natural colored burlap would have been a better choice for this effect but I loved the orange when I saw it and couldn’t pass it up. So for this flower, I cut a strip of felt that was about twice as wide as the strip I cut for the purple fringed flower.

Then I folded it in half…

And fringed it all the way down on the fold…(again, be careful not to cut all the way through to the other side of the felt.)

Then, guess what? Rooooooooll it up and secure with a dot (or two) of hot glue. Again, making sure the bottom is pretty flat.

And you have a third flower! (This one is my favorite…shhhhhh…don’t tell the others!)

Now all that’s left to do is glue them onto the burlap. Which is seemingly simple right? Wrong. Seriously took me almost 30 minutes to figure out where I wanted them. In the end, I facetimed my nephew and asked his opinion (he’s 4 but he has an eye for these things I tell ya) and then, I changed my mind one more time. Here’s where they ended up!