burlap banner - day 12 of the crafty days of christmas (very, very late!)

so, here's the last craft for the 12 crafty days of christmas series.

a burlap banner.

a couple of years ago, i purchased this awesome nativity scene. it's white and glittery and i absolutely love it. however, there is a big, blank space of wall over the place where i display it.

it desperately needed something over it.

don't you agree? so i decided to make a burlap banner displaying the reason for the season,

the name of our Savior, Jesus.

i've seen many burlap banners on the web made many different ways. here's what i used...

brown burlap

unbleached muslin

gold metallic paint

gold leafing pen

fabric glue (you could also use hot glue)

decorative ribbon

and flat thumb tacks

first, i cut five squares of muslin about 3"x3"; one for each letter. then i painted a letter directly onto the muslin with a flat paint brush and my gold metallic paint. i freehanded my letters but you could also stencil the letters if that makes you feel more comfortable.

after the letters were dry, i rounded the corners of my squares and used fabric glue to glue them to my burlap. i then cut the burlap out leaving about an inch of burlap showing around the muslin and rounding off the corners on it too. 

once i had all the letters cut out, i evenly spaced them on my beautiful decorative ribbon i got in the trim section of joanns and hot glued them in place.

to secure the banner to the wall, i took flat thumb tacks and painted them with the gold paint pen.

here is the final banner!

it was just the kind of vintage touch i was looking for.

 it wasn't up very long before i had to put all of my christmas stuff away, but i look forward to putting it up again next year!