Easy Fall Burlap Sign

As I’ve walked my daughter out to the bus the last couple of mornings, the weather has definitely taken on a cooler edge.  Fall is coming and while I love summer, I’m excited for a new season.  (Not to mention hoodie weather, amiright?)  I’ve packed away my summer decor and started pulling out all the fun fall decorations that bring a smile to my face.  A couple years ago I spotted a cute framed burlap sign at a local store and considered buying it until I saw the price.  I knew I could make something similar without spending a lot and I’m happy with how it turned out!

In August I started hosting a link party called Inspire My Creativity with a group of talented ladies.  Each month we create something new that is based around a theme.  This month, we chose FALL.

To make this burlap sign, you will need:

• burlap stretched across a frame or burlap placed inside a frame
• black Sharpie
• pen
• ruler
• scissors or rotary cutter
• cutting mat
• masking tape
• small piece of cardboard (optional)

I found a set of two 6×8 burlap frames at Walmart for less than $5.  When I unwrapped them, I could see that there was light coming through the middle of the frame.  To rectify this, I cut a piece of cardboard out that was the same width as the opening in the back but a little bit longer on one side and slid it into the space behind the frame.  Problem solved!

Next, I wanted to make sure that the words would be centered.  I decided on a 1″ margin all the way around which gave me a 4×6 space to work in.  I used masking tape to create the border.  All I had was 2″ wide masking tape so I used my cutting mat and rotary cutter to get exactly 1″ wide.

After that, I wrote down the words I wanted on my sign: Pumpkins 5 (cents), Hay Ride 10 (cents).  The way it worked out is that I would need four lines of words.  I wanted the words to be 3/4″ high so that I could have 1/4″ between each row.  To make sure that my lines were straight, I cut more masking tape into 1/4″ strips and measured down 3/4″ and put the tape below that.  When I was done, I had nice, evenly spaced rows.  (Honestly, getting everything taped off was the longest part of making the sign but was definitely worth it so I had straight lines and letters the same height.)

Next, I measured the center of the space and marked it on each row of masking tape.  Then I counted out the number of letters in each word(s) and circled where the middle was.  From there I started in the middle of each word and worked my way out, using a pen to sketch the letters.  Then I traced the words with a sharpie and removed the tape.

Ta-da!  I love how it turned out.  It’s a fun and simple fall craft for yourself, a craft night or even a gift.  This is so easy to personalize with the words or style of writing.  I’m thinking I might see if I can convince my husband to make a frame for me.  What do you think?

As I mentioned above, this post is part of the Inspire My Creativity link party where every second Wednesday of the month, I will be co-hosting along with 12 other talented bloggers where we will be sharing a project based around a theme.  You can check out each of their blogs below: