Happy Monday – Today I have part 3 of 3 for you on How To Make a Printable Monogram to embellish decorative accessories and gifts. I am sharing my favorite free monogram fonts. I originally planned for the series to be one post, but as I started writing about how I made monograms on my computer, I realized it was going to be way too long for one post. To answer all the questions I receive about the process – it morphed into 3 posts. Dividing it into 3 also helps makes it easier for readers to find the exact information they are looking for. If you have not read the first two posts you can find them here: Below are the fonts that I have found work well when creating a monogram to print. The word – Monogram Fonts is: – It is not free. I paid $3 for it. The word Free: When downloading fonts – please take note of the “READ” files. These contain any specific details about the font – if it is only for personal use, etc. On many sites, you can also donate some $$$ to help the designers that make fonts accessible for us to use. And more on Bloggers' Best DIY Ideas. Design Microsoft Office Microsoft Word Label Templates How To Make Labels. How can the answer be improved? A few tips to consider when you create your own monograms. • Any font can be made into a monogram, but fonts that are vertical, not slanted, work better. • Mix lower case with upper case letters for a modern take on the traditional. • Add 2 smaller letters on top of each other, the third larger. It is the same font as #9, just arranged differently. • Add Wingdings above or under the letters, or bullets on each side. Most computer word processing programs come with Wingdings. Go down to “W” in your font list to find them. Choose Wingdings as your font then – Click on the letter S on your keyboard to make a diamond shaped bullet: S = s L= l N=n Z= v There are many more swirls, dots and dashes that would work well with monograms, so experiment until you find one you like. • Another way to add embellishments around your monogram is using the font “” No letters in this font, just swirls and pretty embellishments that can be made as easily as a keystroke. Like the purple swirl above – under the list of fonts links. • There is no right way – create something truly unique in your own style. That is what makes DIYing so much fun. You get to do it your way. Hi Maria – If the initial is made from balsa or birch plywood then all you need to do is: lightly sand over any rough edges, clean off the sanding grit and then use acrylic craft paint. You can find the paint in the craft store. 2 oz bottles in any color you desire.:-) I would use 2 – 3 light coats of paint, letting each one dry before applying the next coat. Once you have good coverage, apply 1 – 2 coats of water-based sealer over it. You can use any of the water-based sealers sold where craft paints are sold, or you can use Minwax Polycrylic. It comes in a few sheens. I would probably use satin or semi-gloss on it. Hi Jenni – You save the images that you find online or make your own in photo enhancing software programs like Photoshop or PhotoShop Elements, Illustrator, Picasa, Pic Monkey or digital scrapbook sites. On Etsy and scrapbook sites, you may be able to buy images or they may even offer free printables for you to download and then customize as you like. For instance, to make the chevron with the scalloped circle I made for my phone, I scanned a piece of chevron scrapbook paper I bought. Uploaded it to my computer, opened the scanned image in Photoshop Elements and used the tools in the program to change the size and color. I then made a circle image, added the scallops and dots again using the tools in PSE. The monogram was using the font KK Monogram. I added that image on top of the chevron and then saved the image. I can then use it for an online image or print it out. I hope this helps. When I first started blogging, I didn’t understand how it was done either and bought Photoshop Elements so I could learn how to do it. Pic Monkey is free and so is Picasa and GIMP. Do a Google Search for them and you can download them for free. Hi Anna – You can use the fonts you download in your word processing program, Photoshop, and software on your computer. I have Microsoft Word and Photoshop. When I click on my fonts tab in these programs- a font list appears so you can choose what font you want to use in your document or in an image. When you download the fonts you may have to restart your computer for the new fonts to show up in your font lists. Having a variety of fonts to use in your documents, email messages, and on photos and creative applications adds more style than just using the basic fonts that come with your computer and software. I love monograms. I think it’s safe to say I’m pretty much obsessed with them. Maybe it’s because my last name starts with “L,” and cursive “L’s” are kinda pretty. Maybe it’s because it makes me feel like I’m an official person or somethingI have a monogram; I must be significant, right? ? And maybe it’s just because they’re swirly and beautiful and girly looking, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love that? I guess I could go out and buy a monogram at the store, but I almost always make them myself because A. It’s cheaper! I can make exactly what I want. Here’s what I did: Install Monogram KK Font 1. I wandered on over to dafont.com and downloaded. Then I installed it on my computer. (Because why would you download and not install?:)) On my PC, a dialogue box popped up, and I chose to save the file. I then right-clicked on the file in the download box and selected “Open Containing Folder.” I opened the monogram kk folder, then clicked on the monogram kk file: Once opened, I simply clicked “Install,” and the font showed up in my font dropdown list. Create Your Monogram in Word 3. Now that I had the font installed, it was time for the fun part! I chose a background color by selecting “Page Color” under the “Page Layout” tab. I wanted to add an extra splash of color to my monogram, so I added a border using the “Shapes” tool. Under the “Insert” tab, pick “Shapes,” and choose the outline shape you would like. I chose the “Plaque” shape under the “Basic Shapes” heading. Draw your shape to the size you want and place it in the desired position on the page. Then select your outline and fill colors from the “Drawing Tools” tab. I chose “No Fill” as the fill color and a dark yellow, 6 pt weight for the outline. Now it’s monogram time! Click the “Insert” tab and select “Word Art.” You can pick any style of Word Art to start; you’ll change the shape and color later. I like to start with the initial for the last name, which will be in the middle of the monogram. Type the letter and select “monogram kk” from the font drop down menu. You will now want to change the shape, size, and color of the letter. First, with the Word Art letter selected, click “Text Wrapping” under the “Word Art Tools” tab, and choose “In Front of Text.” This allows you to move the letter around the page more freely. Next, change the shape by choosing “Change Shape” under the “Word Out” tab and selecting the straight line titled “Plain Text.” Move the letter to the middle of your page, resize it to your liking, and change the outline and fill colors under the “Word Art” tab. Repeat steps 5 & 6 to add the other two initials. If you are creating a monogram of just one person’s initials, their first initial goes first, followed by their (larger) surname initial, then their middle initial. So Jane Elizabeth Doe would have the monogram J D E. If you are making a monogram for a couple, the wife’s initial goes first, followed by the initial of the couple’s last name and finally the husband’s initial. For example, my name is Abby and my husband is Donnie, so our monogram is A L D. Once you have the letters arranged together, it may help to group them so that you can move them around the page as one unit instead of one at a time. To do this, select all three letters by holding down the “Ctl” key while clicking each letter. When you have all three highlighted, right click within the selected letters, and under “Grouping” choose “Group.” **UpdateMarlene from recently left me this helpful tip for grouping objects more easily: “Under the ‘HOME’ tab, way over to the right choose ‘select,’ then ‘select object,’ then using your mouse drag the dashed line around all the objects you want to group. Then ‘group’ ‘em!” So simple! Thanks, Marlene! That may have seemed like a lot of steps, but it is actually a simple process; the more you play around with it, the easier it will get. I’m warning you, though, pretty soon you will be as obsessed as I am and will be sticking monograms on everything in sight! Happy monogramming! Was this post helpful? Check out my other Microsoft Word Tutorials: What are your favorite things to monogram? Hi Abby I had to print out all 3 of your excellent tutorials so I can see how confused I can make myself, lol. I get pretty confused at the littlest thing so it will be very interesting how I comprehend your tutorial. Believe me it’s not your tutorials’ fault, it’s” mrs. Digitally challenged” here. Love all the screens and how you show what you have to do. I don’t even know what to do with free fonts people offer, told ya, lol Are you using a particular version of Word? I don’t know what version I have, I bought my pc a year ago Black Friday, it’s Windows 7 HP. I’ll have to try to find out what I have. Is that important to know? Thanks for all your hard work putting all the tutorials together. Happy Weekend. I LOVE this!!! While reading this, I stopped at the part about how you do a monogram with a couple. I am getting married soon and a wedding director told me that before you get married, the woman’s name goes first, then last name, then man’s name. My name is Erin, our last name is McCloud, and my future husband’s name is Greg, so it would be EMG. BUT, after you’re married, the man’s name goes first, so it would be GME. Not sure on who’s correct! ? But I still love a monogram! Thanks for your tutorial! That is so odd! I didn’t have that issue. I’m wondering if your printer isn’t recognizing the “page color” as a background color. Here’s a quick fix. Go to the “Insert” Tab, click “Shape” and choose the rectangle. Draw a rectangle that’s the size of your whole page and use the “Drawing Tools” toolbar to change it to the color you want. Then, also in the “Drawing Tools” toolbar, click “Send to Back.” It should now be behind your monogram and plaque border and I bet that since your printer recognized the plaque, it will recognize the rectangle as well, and it should look exactly the same as mine. Let me know if this doesn’t work and I’ll try to look into it further. Hope this helps! HmmmAfter you downloaded it, did you go to the folder with the zip file and double click the folder? If a dialogue box doesn’t pop up after you download, there should be a down arrow to the right of your navigation bar next to the little house icon (if you are using Firefox). If you click the arrow, you should be able to click on the zip folder. Inside that folder is a file called “monogram kk sc” and when you double click that, that’s when you should get the option to install. Hope this helps! Thanks for checking out my tutorial! Fortunately, my husband also has a Macbook Pro, so I was able to do some investigating. When you click “download” at dafont.com, it puts a zip file on your desktop. Double click the file to unzip, and open the folder to find the.ttf file. In Finder, click “Macintosh HD” (your hard drive), choose “System”, then click “Library”, and select the “Fonts” folder. Drag the.ttf file into your “Fonts” folder (you may have to authenticate). Then restart your computer to use the font. I hope this works for you! I just did the whole process on his Mac, and it worked like a charm, so it should be fine. Hope you’re having a great week! Thanks, Kristen! I think the easiest way to view it on your phone I would be to save it as a pdf. It should show up when you do that. If that doesn’t work, saving it as a.jpg (picture file) definitely will. Here’s how to do that: If you changed the page color of your document for your background, you will need to do it with a shape instead. Insert>Shape>Choose the rectangle, draw it the size of the whole screen, change the color to what you want, right click it and under “Order” choose “Send to back” to get it behind your monogram letters. Then you’ll want to “group” all of your pieces and save it as a picture by copying and pasting it into PowerPoint. My “Create Your Own Graphics in Word” tutorial gives detailed instructions on how to do that here (see steps 5 & 6):. Hope this helps! If you have any more questions feel free to ask away! Have a wonderful Sunday! I had the monogram I made for my bathroom printed on card stock and I put it in an 11 x 14 frame, so there was plenty of room behind the mat for my extra inches, and my design was in the middle with room to spare, so it wasn’t cut off at all. If you just make sure your design is within the 8.5 x 11 limits, you can do what I did for an 11 x 14 or trim down the edges to fit it in an 8 x 10 frame. You could also use a document frame which is sized to fit letter-sized paper. Hope this helps! Are you on a Mac by any chance? This tutorial was done on Word 2007 on a PC. For Macs, the font download process is a little different. (And maybe on newer versions of PCs. I’m not sure, as I switched to a Mac shortly after writing this tutorial.) When you click “download” at dafont.com, it puts a zip file on your desktop. Double click the file to unzip, and open the folder to find the.ttf file. In Finder, click “Macintosh HD” (your hard drive), choose “System”, then click “Library”, and select the “Fonts” folder. Drag the.ttf file into your “Fonts” folder (you may have to authenticate). Then restart your computer to use the font. I hope this helps! It is with questions like this that I wish I could be looking at your computer, because it is hard to troubleshoot without seeing what is going on! Thanks so much for visiting my blog! Have a wonderful week! Hello there, first I would like to Thank You so much for your post. OMG you would NOT believe how long I’ve been looking for a step by step way of doing this in Word. You are a Lifesaver. I purchased a Cricut machine in Nov.2015, thinking “Yea, I’m about to go to town on me some monograms” NOT haha. I mean the Cricut Is Awesome, don’t get me wrong, but for some reason with this font it doesn’t cut out as good as others because of the squigly lines. So I was going to ask you if there is an easy way to thicken the sguigly lines so that it would not cut out just a tiny, thin line? I’ve tried it as Bold which does make it thicker but still doesn’t look as nice as it is regular. Sorry if I’m babbling, but I hope you understand what I’m asking. I’m just loving your easier ways of doing things and newer things I’ve learned All from you. After I’ve watched about 50 YouTube videos and googled info about that Blew my Mind. I had to take a vacation and I’m retired, haha. Hope you can get something out of my jabber jaws. Thanks again.
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