DIY: Burlap Banner

You will need:

Craft Knife, Burlap, Twine or ribbon to string banner up, Thread (spool and a bobbin), Scissors, Exacto knife, Pen, Pins, Ruler, Sharpie in color of your choice, Cutting board, 8.5x11 Paper for printing letters, 9x13 Paper for triangle template, Sewing machine

1) Choose your font and print out your letters. The font shown is Charlemagne Std at font size 450. Remember, that more delicate fonts won't be seen from far away. Next, using your craft knife carefully cut out the letters. These will become your stencils - you'll be discarding the black printed part and keeping the full white sheet with the letter cut out of it. For letters A, B, D, O, P, Q and R, make sure you keep the inner white pieces, as you'll need those later.

2) Measure, draw and cut out your triangle shape in your preferred size. Then, cut your burlap triangles using your paper triangle template and an exacto knife.

3) Place your letter template on top of your burlap triangle, making sure it is straight and relatively centered on the triangle. Measure the distance from the top of the triangle to the top of the letter and make note of the measurement; you will want to ensure this is the same distance for every burlap banner piece.

4) Once your placement is correct, trace the outline of the letter with your sharpie. Remove stencil.

5) Colour in the letter inside your tracing lines, using your sharpie. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have colored in all of your letters.

6) Flip your first letter triangle over and lay the twine down about 1" down from the top.

7) Fold the burlap over to form a pocket and pin, making sure not to pin the twine into the seam - the twine should move freely. Leave a very long piece of twine sticking out, as you don't know exactly how long you'll need it to be until you get to your venue.

8) Using your sewing machine, stitch along the edge of the pocket, removing pins as you go. Again, ensure that the twine can move freely. If you don't have a sewing machine, you could hand-sew or use a hot glue gun for this step. Repeat steps 9 and 10 with remaining triangles, in the order of how they will appear in the names or word.

9) When you have your triangles sewn, use your scissors to trim off the small triangle that was formed when you created the twine pocket. And voila! An adorable burlap banner!