monthly craft challenge - monogram

To say I'm not a crafty person would be an understatement! Seriously, I can barely tie a ribbon around a present. In fact, I can barely wrap a present, which explain why the vast majority of presents I give are given in a gift bag. However, Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessing seems to be able to bring out the little bit of craftiness I possess and I'm participating in this month's challenge.

The challenge is monogram. Heidi has defined a monogram as a design composed of one or more letters, typically the initials of a name, used as an identifying mark. Hopefully what I'm entering will count. Remember, I'm a crafty newbie so don't be cruel.

A while ago, I realized that all of Melody's hairbows were just a jumbled mess, haphazardly clipped on to an old ribbon in her room. Y'all know how happy I am that we finally have enough hair to actually use a hair bow and I wanted my sparse growing collection of hair bows properly displayed. After searching Etsy (a site I have only recently discovered, by the way) for hair bow holder, I suddenly realized I could make one myself. So, off I went to Michaels. There were quite a lot of options to choose from, however, given that this is pretty much my first craft project (not counting the silly little sticker crafts I always do with my children to keep them entertained)

I decided to keep it simple and do an 'M'. After choosing my letter, I moved on to craft paint. Again I looked at all the options that lay in front of me, but my inexperience again go the best of me. I just choose pink. Here's where I got bold; yes, the ribbon I choose does in fact have a pattern on it! A little foam brush and a glue gun and I'm ready to get crafty.

Simple or not, I'm pretty happy with the result. Melody's bows are nicely displayed and I'm proud of myself for actually creating something (maybe?) worth blogging about. This is despite the fact that I did glue part of the ribbon on backwards. Thankfully it's the part that hangs and I don't think it's that noticeable.

Oh and let me just give a little shout out to whoever invented the glue gun. That, my friends, is an ingenious invention. Not only did it do an amazing job attaching the ribbon to my wooden letter, but it has proven to be durable enough to withstand the excitement of a two-year-old. My husband even used it it fix a few broken things around the house. Instead of "where's the duct tape" he's asking where the glue gun is!

I know this is small bones to many of you, but for me, making this was quite a feat! Hopefully I'm on my way to many more fun craft projects.

In fact, I was recently scouring Etsy for a ribbon board for Melody's room. Those also looked like something I might could try making myself. I even googled "ribbon memory board" and a DIY website came up with step by step instructions. However, there were a few craft supplies that I had never heard of and had no idea where to find them, so I think I might need to stick to my simple glue gun activities until I perfect my skills a bit!

Oh, and when I showed it to Melody she responded with her current catch phrase, "Oh, it's so cute!"