Because we need another initial in our house

It's time to share a little project I created months ago! Because there's no time like the present to share some crafty love. It was one of those things I started & then let sit until a few weeks before hundreds of strangers came trapsing through our home. Nothing like a good old fashioned home tour to kick you in the ass to get things done, right?

My poor husband. We have more letter 'K's' in the house than he cares to think about. I had a growing collection of these letters long before we got married, and then hit the jackpot when I took on his last name. A first and last name with the same initial? Blows my mind. And drives my husband nuts.

So I did what any good wife would do & bought another letter K. This time for the front door. I'd seen a lot of these on Etsy, but figured they were easy enough to make myself. Which, if you know my mom, you know I'm turning into her. Growing up we'd see something we liked and she would say "I can make that". That's annoying for a teenager to hear, but as an adult it's music to my ears. Lucky for me my mom is still in her "I can make that" mode, and her daughter has followed in her footsteps!

Anyhoo, here's what you'll need:

A craft letter (I got mine from Joann's)
Sheets of felt (in my case, the more the better...you never know when you'll screw something up)
Thick twine (again, I found mine at Joann's)
A fabric doily (also from Joann's...you're sensing a theme here, no?)
Ribbon

The process was pretty simple. I started wrapping the twine around the letter and securing it to the back with a glue gun. Yep, every single layer of twine was secured with glue. I found it was best to glue on the backside, that way if I made a mistake it was pretty much hidden (or in our case, only visable to us through the glass door). Luckily the twine was so thick you really can't see any glue...one point for Katie! This process was surprisingly fast & easy. I worked on it for 2 nights, but total labor was probably about 1.5 hours. You know, the perfect amount of time to mindlessly wrap twine while watching The Bachelorette.

You can see things got tricky somewhere in the middle, which required lots of trimming and glueing on the front (gasp!). But see, no visible glue...so really, this project was a win-win for me. I'm just happy our last name doesn't begin with a Q or X. Things could be worse.

I used the felt to make rosettes. I didn't take the time to take photos of this process, but I used this tutorial that I found on Pinterest. This one was for paper rosettes, but it works exactly the same for felt (to keep the flower intact, I just secured the end with a little glue). SO easy.



via

And the final product! I wadded up the little fabric doily and shoved it in between the felt rosettes (again, securing it with a dab of glue). Crafting it not always glamorous or methodical...sometimes methods like "wadding" and "shoving" are necessary evils. 

The ribbon was attached with glue and straight pins for extra security. The bow is tied to a little nail at the top of the door (which all of our seasonal stuff gets attached to). I wasn't sure if one little nail would hold this baby in place, but it stood the test of time when people were in & out of our home for an entire day. Again, I can't begin to say how easy this project was. I don't know how much I spent in the end, but I'm guessing it's far less than the $35-40 + shipping price tag that I've seen out there.

And the fact that we've added another letter K to our collection? Well, that's just priceless.