failed doormat

In celebration of Meredith's birthday today {happy birthday, Mer!!}, I thought I'd share with you the failed DIY doormat I made for Meredith's birthday present. {She will clearly be receiving a different, non-DIY present for her birthday, since her first present did not turn out!}

Lately, I've been trying to become more crafty. I know that once Kurt and I move into our house, we're hoping to complete many DIY projects. Going along with the 'new homeowners' theme, I decided that it would be a great idea to try and make Meredith and Josh a doormat for their new home. So, let's get started....

Before I began, I made sure I had all of my supplies that I {*thought} were needed.

-Plain Coir Doormat
{nearly impossible to find--after 6 stores, I finally found it at Kohl's}

-Painters Tape
-Exacto Knife
-Cardstock Paper
-Monogram Letters
{I found a font I liked on dafont.com and printed the M, &, and J.}

-2 Colors of Spray Paint
-Newspaper

*I may re-try a project like this. If so, I'd do a few things differently that may change the ending results. {Use a ruler to make sure all lines are perfectly straight and measure letter spacing. Try and find a less textured doormat {could be impossible!}. And, buy more quality painters tape.}

After I had printed the letters, I cut them out. I then taped the paper letters to the cardstock. Using the exacto knife, I carefully cut the letters out on the more firm cardstock.

Then I began the taping process. {I should have taken more time on this step!} First I taped the letters on. {Because the mat was so textured, the edges of the letters did not stick down as much as I hoped.} Then I taped the uneven/'funky' border. After the border was on {and after many attempts of me sticking it down}, I cut out the pieces {with the exacto knife} of the border that overlapped.

Next, I covered up all the extra spaces with newspaper. Then it was time to paint! Kurt and I chose to paint the letters blue and the border gray.

This is what it looked like after everything was done and it was drying. At this point, I had a bad feeling that the paint found its way under the edges of the letters. And sure enough, I was {unfortunately} correct.

Here's the final product. Morri {Christopher's dog} wanted to jump in the picture taken on my parents patio. When viewed closer up, you can see how the blue paint seeped under the cardstock paper at certain parts. It's not horrible, but it doesn't have the wow factor I was hoping for.....

Any ideas/tips on my next try are welcome! If you have any good ideas for more DIY projects, I'd love to hear.