Monday, November 24, 2014

Embellish a Readers Digest Monogram Book

You have probably seen these monogram books popping up in stores. I know Anthropologie has sold them for some time and I've seen them in a number of shops. I recently received one as a gift from my good friend Sherry. Being the craft nut that I am, I decided mine needed to be embellished somehow...


I really love the simplicity of monogram books so I decided to just take it easy and not "over embellish" the book. I think they look great just nestled on a shelf or desk with a few decorative items. 


After looking through papers and a bunch of crafty things I decided to try covering the book with fabric. I had picked up a boatload of vintage fabrics at a garage sale a few years back for $2. It was seriously massive amounts of fabric in one of those enormous rubbermaid tubs. I gave a bunch of it away and have used a lot of it in various projects, like my fabric banners. I held onto some really pretty floral pieces and decided to use them for this project.

I started by tracing the book cover (front and back) onto fabric. When cutting the fabric I left approximately a 1/2 inch of fabric around the entire edge.

Using a foam brush I generously painted Mod Podge over the front cover then firmly pressed the fabric onto the cover, and then did the same with the spine and back cover. After the Mod Podge had dried, I opened the covers and snipped the fabric where there were corners. I added a little Mod Podge around the edges of the inside covers then folded the fabric over tightly.

I considered covering the inside of the covers with fabric also, but it seemed easier to just glue the first and last pages of text to the front and back covers. I figured no one is looking at the inside of the covers anyway, no big deal.


After the cover had dried, I decided to add a piece of twine around the top of the right side. The book seemed to open a little too much when it was standing upright, so it just needed something to keep it closed.



I think these book monogram letters are the perfect holiday gift idea for your bookworm friends and family. And if it needs a little something then it's really easy to embellish one yourself...


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