Burlap "Cards" Banner

Where did this past week {or month!} go? I feel like I blinked and Friday is upon us and June is at the doorstep. 

In my last post I told you how I've been working on a few wedding crafts for a friend who's getting married in a few weeks. 
I made some personalized hangers that the bride-to-be will give to her wedding party girls. 




On a quick side note, this is the burlap, lace and vintage sheet music flag banner that the groom's mom and I made for their shower. It's not a good photo, I know. It says, "Gettin' Hitched" : )

And I just had to show you this darling outdoor seating area that the shower hostess created from pallets. So cute!

Okay, back to the subject at hand : )

Today I'll show you another fun, simple project I did for the reception.  

  
The bride-to-be brought me this darling little suitcase that they want to use as a place for guests to put their cards for the bride and groom at the reception. She asked me to create a little banner to hang across the open lid of the suitcase. I'm sure many of you have seen this same idea on Pinterest and other wedding sites. 




She gave me free reign to use whatever I wanted to create the banner. I could use fabric, paper, etc. They are having an outdoor,  country vintage style wedding-think lace, burlap, mason jars, some hay bale seating, etc. Fun! 

I decided I'd go with burlap for this little project. I still had a scrap piece left from my first burlap project and it suited the theme. Perfect.

 

Being an outdoor setting, and likely to be a bit windy, I decided I'd use some heavy cardboard pieces to back the burlap. Hopefully this will keep it a little more stable. The cardboard was just scrap packing grids in a discarded box.

 I visually estimated, and cut the size of the burlap rectangles I'd need to cover the opening, then cut cardboard rectangles a little smaller for the back. Using my trusty (and ancient) vinyl stencil and a black ink pad I added each letter to the burlap just using my finger.

Of course you could do this with paint or permanent marker, also.

At this point I straightened the edges a bit and then pulled a few strands from each edge giving them a frayed look. 

 Using hot glue, I attached the cardboard pieces to the back of each piece of burlap. 

 I used some fairly heavy twine to create the hanging line. I didn't get a photo of just the line across the front of the suitcase lid, but you understand. This particular suitcase had some upholstery tack nail heads on the lid so it was very simple to wrap the twine around those. This won't show when this is on the card table, it will be on the back of the open lid.

I used some mini clothespins I already had to hang each letter across the twine. 

Such an easy and fun little detail to add personality to a wedding, birthday or other celebration! It really is an honor to create even a humble detail like this for someone's wedding. Next I'll be working on some chalkboards and signs for the ceremony and reception. Stay tuned!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

Jeanette

Sharing over at...

Fabulously Creative Friday at Jennifer Rizzo 
Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 
Blitzed on Pinterest at On Sutton Place 
  and Debbie-doo's