Burlap Banner Tutorial

It's February, which means it's time for some Valentine's decor! Honestly I don't do a lot of seasonal decorating, but I'm hosting Bunco this month so I thought it'd be fun to at least add a little banner to my mantle to make things a bit more festive. I decided to make the banner in bright colors to match some of the party supplies I picked up at Target and Wal-Mart. This banner was really simple to make and took no more than an hour tops. In case you're interested in making one too, here are the details.

What you need:
--burlap (1/4 of a yard is plenty)
--acrylic paint or paint pen
--paintbrush
--printed letters & triangle template (download below)
--scissors
--tape
--marker for tracing
--twine
--hot glue gun

1. Unless you want to freehand your cutting and painting, you can download the templates I used. Download the triangle template here and the LOVE letters here. Once you download them, print them out on regular paper. Cut the triangle out, and trace it on to the burlap 4 times. I used a sharpie and it worked well. (I did make sure that the side the showed the sharpie was on the reverse side when it came time to paint.) Cut the triangles out of the burlap.  

2. Cut the LOVE letters into 4 squares. It doesn't matter if they're straight because these are just being used as a stencil of sorts. I saw this technique for stenciling burlap on Jessica's blog and think it's such a great idea. It's super simple and is great for someone like me who is horrible at free-handing! Since you can see through the burlap, it's perfect.  I just taped the burlap to the piece of paper to hold it in place while I was painting.

3. Use a paint brush or paint pen to trace the letters on to the burlap. Once I had it completely painted, I went ahead and removed the paper from the back and laid the burlap on a paper towel to allow the paint to dry. You could just leave it on the paper to dry, but there will be paint build-up on the paper so removing it allowed it to dry faster. 

4. Once the letters were dry, I laid them face down, ran a strip of hot glue across the top, and placed the twine on the back. I forgot to take a picture of this step so I hope it makes sense. :)

And that's it! It's definitely not perfect but that's kind of what I love about it...it doesn't have to be. I think this would also be really fun for a baby shower, birthday banner, or to make for other holidays.

Have a great weekend!