Hessian 'Home' Banner

Hello again!

I am on a blog roll this week!!

A while back I purchased a 5 metre roll of natural hessian and it has been in the parcel sack it came in ever since!  I decided to have a play with it yesterday using a banner die set from Sizzix that I bought recently.  Here is the set of dies that I used

This is the result!

I really like it but then I do love the look of hessian anyway!!  I think in the US you call it burlap but if you go to a fabric shop in the UK and ask for that they look at you blankly!

Now the only problem with hessian is that it frays very easily!  To prevent this you can either do a nice zig zag around the edge with your sewing machine or you can do what I did and smear a pva/tacky glue along the edges on the back side of it.  It will dry clear and should harden the edges so that they don't fray.

I then used white acrylic paint to paint a block in the middle of each one.  For the lettering I made a stencil for each letter.  I just printed the letters out onto normal copy paper and used a pencil to go around the outline, then turned it over, put some stiff card underneath and scribbled over the outline on the back of the copy paper.  This transferred the outline onto the stiff card.  I then just went over the outline with my pencil and then cut it out using a craft knife.  With the 'O' I had to keep the little middle circle bit so that I could place it in the cutout when I was painting the letter.  Otherwise I would had just painted a circle and not an 'O'!  I then positioned the stencil over the white painted block on the hessian and painted the lettering onto each flag.

Lastly - I folded over the top of each flag and then used a glue gun to attach some natural jute string to it.

I am pleased with it and although it takes abit of time waiting for glue and paint to dry, I think it is worth it!

This banner is for sale over on my Facebook page Bumble Bee's craft Den for £8 plus postage, so if you want it, please head on over there!

Thanks for reading my post!