Paper Straw Monogram

Begin by printing out a large letter on standard printer paper. Depending on the letter, you may find it helpful to switch the page orientation to landscape so you can make the letter bigger. You may also find that creating the letter within a text box allows you to make it larger.

You may have seen my recent tutorial for a Paper Straw Wreath. That project required cutting the straws, and some of the pieces weren’t used. So I’ll be using the leftovers to create this pretty monogram.

I’m using birch patterned straws I bought at Paper Source. Again, my straw pieces have already been cut, but you can cut yours as you go.

Add a line of hot glue directly on the letter, and adhere a piece of straw. Make sure the straw piece is large enough to entirely cover that portion of the letter. It’s okay if it’s a little bigger, as we’re going to trim it down later.

If your letter has a center cutout, such as the letter D, align the ends of the straws with the inner edge of the letter. This way you’ll only have to cut through the paper in the center, and not the straws.

Continue gluing straw pieces to the letter.

Once the letter is entirely covered, flip the paper over and cut out the shape of the letter. You should be able to see the outline from the back. Use large scissors and take it slow. The paper straws take a little patience to cut through.

Hot glue the letter to the center of a piece of scrapbook paper. Alternately, you could glue a piece of fabric to the back panel of the shadowbox and adhere the letter to that.

I’m also adding a paper border around the edge of the paper. You could also use ribbon.

Use a hair dryer to dissolve any stray glue strands.

Display the monogram in a shadowbox.

Click here to see the tutorial for the Paper Straw Wreath.