Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 9}: Burlap Engagement Bunting How-To

          After many days of browsing  for wedding ideas I came across engagement photos with buntings. Each one was different, with it's own style. Fabric buntings, paper buntings, buntings with sayings, buntings with numbers, etc. Since our engagement photos were coming up I decided to come up with one of our own! Our wedding theme is, "Country Boy Meets City Girl", so it was only fitting for our Six-O Ranch engagement photo location to use a burlap bunting strung with twine.

      Materials:

1. Burlap - Hancock Fabrics 1 yard $3
2. Ball of Twine - $7 at Wal-mart
3. Freezer Paper - Wal-mart
4. Iron
5. Ironing board
6. Ink-jet Printer
7. No-Sew stitching glue - $6 Hobby Lobby
8. Cardboard "stencil" - Cardboard box from garage :-P
9. Magazine
10. Scissors
11. Tape

Preparing burlap for direct printing:

         I took my burlap, freezer paper, iron & ironing board to prepare the burlap for direct printing. With the burlap ironed & flat on the ironing board, I took a piece of freezer paper, not too big, & laid it on top of the burlap - shiny side facing the burlap. On medium, NO STEAM, heat I ironed the freezer paper to the burlap. It takes a few minutes, but the freezer paper eventually sticks to the burlap - which is easily peeled off later.

         With the magazine, I traced an 8x11 outline on the freezer paper, then cut out the outline of freezer paper/burlap. Your burlap is now ready to be fed through the printer for printing! I used a font called, "Bleeding Cowboy" that we intend to use for other wedding stationary.

Printing:

        Choose your wording on Microsoft Word, put the burlap/freezer paper in the printer like you would normal paper - pay attention to which way it needs to face to print on burlap, not freezer paper. Print! Peel off your freezer paper & TA-DA! You now have your printed burlap!

Assembly of Bunting:

        I decided to do a shape different from the typical triangular bunting, especially since I needed a bit more room for the wordings. I took the flap of a cardboard box and cut out the shape of choice. I then used double sided tape & lined the edges of the cardboard to hold the burlap in place as I cut around the burlap edges. Take your twine & cut to desired length.

My bunting in the original 8x11 form right after printing - prior to cutting them with the cardboard outline

        Using the No-Sew stitching glue, put a good amount on the burlap at the desired spot - I chose to do an inch below the top - and press the burlap onto the twine. The glue will seep through a bit & will be white, but it dries clear. :-) Give it a good 24 hours before handling to make sure the glue really sets. :-) Since we were going to be outside, I then glued a 2nd piece of burlap to the back of each individual bunting shape. This was to make the letters stand out better & to add weight to the light burlap in case of wind. THAT'S IT! Now enjoy your bunting masterpiece.


The bottom right burlap you can see I have glued the twine 1in from the top, burlap in top right



Keep in mind you could line your bunting with the twine, jewels, lace, etc. The options are endless!

Bunting strung across our fireplace mantel until it was time to be used - hence the boo sign, this was back in October haha

These two were worn by our adorable puppies! I braided the twine to make it easier to tie around their necks.

       Check back to see the final photos taken by the wonderful photographer, Michelle Peyronet < click the link the check out her work! :-)



One of our favorite engagements utilizing the dogs and their buntings!



Here is the final 5x7 Magnet Save-the-Date that Michelle Peyronet designed for us! It doesn't have the best clarity using my iPhone of it up on our fridge, but you get the point :-)