Notes from Kristen: Monogrammed Pillow {DIY}

A few months ago I was at Pottery Barn looking for pillows for the living room. Of all places, I end up running into the mom of one of my childhood friends. She is an interior decorator that now does consulting work with Pottery Barn. Small world, right?!? Of course, she asked what I was doing and as soon as I handed her my fabric swatches, she went to town. One of the pillows I got was this one:

It was on clearance and she had the fabulous idea of suggesting that I have it monogrammed to add some interest since it was a little plain. Did she know that "just monogram it" is music to my ears?!? The wheels started turning in my head and I decided that I could do it myself!

I've never tried iron transfer before but always wanted to, so I crowned this as my perfect project to try it out on. I ordered Epson transfer paper. It was almost as easy as 1-2-follow the directions. First, if you get inkjet paper, then use an inkjet printer. I tried to cut corners and run it through my laser printer and it destroyed the paper. No good. Second, the tricky part with transfer paper is that you have to know which side is the side to print on and which side is the side to iron on. The shinier side that had the smoother texture turned out to be the side to print on. I downloaded this amazing font: Carribean Tool and set to town on my monogram:

Once I had it printed, I cut it out, leaving about 1/4 of an inch of excess:

Any of the excess, or negative space, you leave will transfer clear but still be the same shiny texture, which is why I wanted as little as possible. Then flip it over, get it straight, and iron it on! (Definitely follow the directions of your transfer paper!)