DIY Using Wood and Burlap

What you will need:
- 8 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch piece of wood (or any size you'd like to work with)
-Wood Finish
-Old rag
-Newspaper or something like it
-Clear Acrylic Sealer
-Burlap
-Scissors
-Quilt Pen
-A Cricut or Di-cut machine and paper
-Tacky Glue

Start with you Piece of wood. I used a 8 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch piece of wood. I had mine cut for me at my local home improvement store.
First, we need to stain it... so grab your wood, old rag, wood finish, and newspaper (I used a paper grocery bag).

You may want to do this outside. Lay your wood on your newspaper or bag. Use your old rag to rub the wood finish onto your piece of wood. Make sure you fill in all those tiny cracks!

Once your finished let it dry for a few hours. 

Next you'll want to seal your finish. You will want to do this outside as well.

Make sure you cover the whole piece of wood. Spray as directed on the can.

When you're finished...let it dry outside. I left mine outside overnight to get rid of the smell too!

Now we can start on your burlap...

You will want to cut a piece of burlap slightly smaller than the face of your wood. If you cut your burlap along a certain strand it makes your next step easier. 

Next pull about 4-5 burlap strands off all 4 sides of your burlap piece. It should now look something like this...

Now you will need to cut out stencils on your di-cut machine. I used a Cricut machine and these are the sizes I used...

                                 

                                                     

*** You may need to adjust the size of the last name depending on how many letters it has ***

Lay your stencils out to make sure they fit. Next use your quilt pen to trace each letter. I started with the 2 middle letters to make sure it was centered.

Filling in the letters can be time consuming. You will need to color each strand of burlap.

Once you finish the last name- lay out your bottom layer of letters

And follow the same directions as the last name.

Here is the burlap when finished...

Now we can glue to burlap to our finished wood. Make sure your piece of wood is dry before you glue.

Dot each corner of the back of your burlap. This keeps the strands from fraying. Then dot the glue on the rest of the burlap.

          

Then Place it on your piece of wood, centered. 

***Note: The glue will dry CLEAR***

Once the glue is dry it is ready for display!

These are great for Wedding shower gifts, Christmas gifts, Birthday gifts, or to make for yourself!

Happy DIYing!

~Mrs. Rogers

DIY: Dried Flower Box Display

After their wedding, brides like to save their flowers to remember their special day. Whether they are displayed dried and in a vase or made into a Christmas ornament or anything in between. Well why not a DIY display to hang in your home? My mother-in-law, Julie Rogers, dried all of my flowers from my wedding and then helped me with this idea...A flower box!

You will need...
-Your dried flowers
-A hot glue gun
-Spray Mount Adhesive
-1 Yard of burlap
-An old window
-Wood to make a frame
-Wood the same dimensions of your window (for the backing)


First take your window and your wood to make a frame. You will want your frame to be about 3-4 inches deep. My Father-in-law did this part for me. He used bead board to screw into the old window.

 

Next you can take greenery from your flowers to make the bottom of your flowers box. I hot glued them to the window rather than to the back piece (which is coming up...) You want to make sure you cover it well. Here is mine...

Now let's work on the back board. You can attach your burlap piece to the board (I also used bead board for this) using the Spray Mount Adhesive.  Leave a few inches around the edges so you can wrap it around the back. This is the Spray Mount Adhesive I used...

 Once your burlap is attached to the front of the back board you can hot glue the excess to the back of the board. Like this...

Now the fun part...gluing the flowers on! You will want to go from the back to the front. I started with baby's breath, then billy balls, gerber daisies, and I did hydrangeas last. You will want your flower box to have some height or all you will see is burlap and a cluster of flowers at the bottom. Use your stemmed flowers for your height. Save you fuller flowers for the bottom. You want it to be realistic. Make sure you hot glue the stem down well. You can just dot the backs of the flowers. Leave space at the bottom and the edges for the rest of your flowers and your frame. 

When you are done with this you can add your fuller flowers. I went back through and filled in some of the empty looking spots, too.

When you have finished gluing all of your flowers down you can spray them with a cheap scentless hairspray to keep them stiff. No need to drench them... just cover them well. Let it air out and then you can attach the back board to your frame. My father-in-law also did this part for me. A staple gun will work best. Make sure you line up your corners!!

And the finished product...

This can be hung on the wall or displayed on a table. As for the frame...you could either paint it to match the color of your walls or to match the window. As you can see I am still deciding! 

This is a great way to display your flowers from your special day!

Happy DIYing,

~Mrs. Rogers