I Love Burlap, Y'all!

As we've been decorating our house in a "coastal" theme, little by little I've been acquainting myself with more natural textures, colors and materials.  I have a new appreciation for wood, pottery, glass, twine, and - you guessed it - burlap!  (It also might be the south coming out in me.)

In addition to this, I was planning our family Christmas/maternity photography session.  I had been seeing all these banners people have made on pinterest, like this one, and this one, and I really liked them.  I found a couple on etsy.com, but then I decided I could just make one. :)

Here's what you'll need:

- Paper

- Letter stencils

- Burlap

- Twine

- Black acrylic paint

- Paint brush

- Black thread

- Scissors

- Needle

Directions:

1. Decide what you want your banner to say.  The number of letters (plus spaces), is how many pieces of burlap you will need.  We went with "Be Merry".  Some more cute ideas would be your last name, the year, "Merry Christmas", "Blessed", "Love Joy Peace", "Let It Snow"...

2. Choose the size/shape of pennant you want.  Cut a piece of paper to that shape.  Then, using it as a template, cut pieces out of the burlap.  Burlap is a messy fabric, little pieces of it go flying when you cut, and it's very prone to fraying.  Just be cautious when cutting. :)

3. Lay your pieces of burlap out on a solid surface, with something like a trash bag underneath.  

4. Lay the stencils on the burlap.

5. Paint the letters on the burlap.  (p.s.: don't use spray paint.  I tried - epic fail.)

6. Once they're dry, do a very easy, rudimentary stitch at each corner to the twine.  I don't have a picture of this, because the first time around, I stapled them, and with the big holes in burlap, you can imagine how well that held up.  I put the stitches in later.

7. Display, use for pictures...

This is what we used for our Christmas card this year.  

I really love how it turned out!

Although it's a little hard to see, because of the light coming through the door, but we used the banner in our Christmas decorating as well. :)

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

I also made a little wreath, based off of this wreath I found on pinterest.  There is no wrong way, or end all, be all elements, but here's what I used:

Need:

- Small-ish wreath

- Fabric to make rosettes

- Fabric flower(s)

- Burlap

- Twine

- Black Sharpie

- Hot glue gun

I have instructions on how to make rosettes and fabric flowers in this post.  I used some old pajamas, that I loved the pattern of, but they ripped, some fabric scraps, and burlap. :)

Directions:

1. Make rosettes, or fabric flowers.  You could use anything though, buttons, silk flowers, pine branches...

2. Cut the burlap into small triangles

3. Write on the burlap with Sharpie.  I wrote "Blair", since I planned to hanging it on the front door.  Also, this doesn't limit it to only the holiday season.

4. Hot glue the triangles to twine, and that to the wreath.

5. Hot glue rosettes and flowers to wreath.

And, voila!  There you have it!  Some cute, and easy ways to add burlap, and natural fabrics to your holiday decor.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas that you've fallen in love with.