DIY Artificial Grass Monogram

With a word processing or graphics program, create an initial letter of your desired size. The one in this example is made to fit an 11-inch by 17-inch piece of paper. Choose a bold font that is sans serif so it it will be easier to work with. Print out the letter, and cut it out with scissors.

Place the template on a piece of cardboard, and trace the letter with a pen. This is a great use for old boxes, instead of throwing them out or tossing them in the recycling bin.

Cut out the letter with a hobby knife, and be sure to have a cutting mat underneath to protect your workspace. Depending on how dexterous you are with a hobby knife, you may prefer to use scissors, especially around curves.

Cut strips of cardboard that will fit around all the inner and outer edges of the letter. How high you make these side pieces will depend on how thick you want your finished monogram. I decided on three inches.

With a hot glue gun, attach the side pieces to the edges of the monogram letter. They should be attached perpendicularly to the surface of the letter rather than against the side edge, so that the front monogram will fit right on it later. For structural stability, apply hot glue to the corners where the side pieces meet.

To help the monogram stay upright, hot glue a rock to the bottom, and secure it with duct tape. Weighting the bottom is particularly useful for top-heavy letters like Y or T.

Hot glue the front piece onto the rest of the monogram, applying the hot glue to the edges of the cardboard. The side pieces are still flexible at this point, so adjust them if necessary to line up with the front piece.

Turn a piece of artificial grass over onto its plain side. Pace the monogram on top of the grass, and trace the letter. Flip the monogram over and trace the other side. These will be for the front and back.

Following where you traced, cut out the letters with scissors. You will have one grass letter that is the correct orientation and one that is backwards. (Symmetrical letters like A and X will look the same either way.)

Attach the grass letters to the cardboard base with a hot glue gun. Hot glue can dry very quickly, so it's best to glue a section at a time rather than attempting to apply hot glue the entire letter all at once. Then glue the "reverse" grass letter on the back.

Measure how thick your sides are now. They will actually be thicker than the cardboard side pieces you cut because of the addition of the front and back letters. Then cut strips of grass that correspond to this thickness. Mine were about three and a half inches.

Hot glue the strips of grass to the sides of the monogram. Work one side at a time. The artificial grass is very forgiving, so your measurements do not have to be precise to get good coverage over the cardboard. If you come up short, you can always cut a small piece of grass and glue it on.