m is for molly

m is for molly

{diy baby initial tutorial}

m is for molly

one of my dearest friends is having a baby in about three weeks. this is her second baby - her son, noah, will be about 15 months old when molly arrives.

the thought of having two babies under 2 scares the everliving bejeebees out of me. but that is another post for another time.

i have been trying to think of something to make for her nursery that my friend could use somewhere else in the house later. i was going to make her a wreath like this one at under the table and dreaming. so i started rolling paper into roses. 

i finished three and my fingers were blistered and my hands were cramping up. 

i tried to do a fourth one and a bruise started to grow on my elbow from the tension.

ok, not really, but this was a really labor intensive project and i did not give stephanie enough credit for her work. it is an amazing and beautiful wreath that she obviously spent lots and lots of time, hard work, and sanity on. i don't really have much of any of those things to spare so i stopped at three and replanned my attack.

i shopped the house for something i could use and found this lovely "m" that i got to use at our wedding. it has been hanging in our bedroom and i didn't really like it the way it was anyways. so i swiped it and got to work.

i started by spraying it with a light coat of white spray paint. initially i did this because i was going to sand it in the final step to reveal some of the layers of color but i decided against that. i use heirloom white by rustoleum.

while the spray paint was drying i took a stack of music sheets i bought at a garage sale a while back to make another wreath with and started tearing it into pieces.(did i mention how much i love old sheet music? so pretty and romantic... i die...)

i also love that these sheets had hand written notes and changes to the music.i can just imagine a young girl sitting at a piano playing this! love it :)

i wadded these pieces up and threw them in a little pile on the side.

once the paint was dry i took one sheet at a time, un-wadded it, and used mod podge and a foam brush to paint both sides of the paper and then press it on to the m, varying the angles and pattern so it would have some interest.

the hardest parts were the tops and bottoms of the m where it had the most angles to cover so i finished those first. where there was extra paper i just wrapped it around the back and pressed it down. sometimes i tore little pieces off that didn't look right or that didn't fit. there are also places that just didn't get any paper and the white shows.

once i had the entire m covered i let it dry for about 30 minutes and let the hot glue gun heat up. this is where the three paper roses come in...

i hot glued those on the bottom of the right hand side.

and here is the final product.

isn't she just gorgeous? i am not sure how much molly will like it but i am sure her mom will love it!

and the best part is that it was completely, totally free. this i was very proud of! :)

it isn't perfect but i still love it. i can't wait to do a hundred more and experiment with different types of paper. :) so happy with the results!

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