Give Thanks Door Hanger

Yesterday I was bored ... and you all know what that means ... craft time! I have been meaning to make this for a while ... and my dear friend Amanda told me I could use her jigsaw ... but as always I decided to put it off until the very last minute ... aka: the day after Halloween when I have to take down my boo sign ... however ... regardless of the time I spent not making it and procrastinating I think it turned out rather smashing:

sorry the picture is a little lopsided

What I am super excited about with this is that it is my own creation ... I haven't come across anything like it on pinterest or etsy ... aside from that I was able to do it totally free! This was made with scraps that I have had sitting around for a while ... since my last wreath I made (did I show that one? the one with the flowers?). The final great thing about this is that it doesn't take that long to make either! With the right tools it can be made in about one hour ... maybe an hour and a half ... no joke. Ok ... ok ... I'll stop patting my own back ... here is how to make it!

What you need:

• Burlap
• Canvas
• Board from pallet 
• Twine
• Hot glue
• Wire
• Paint
• Pen
• Drill

First what you wanna do is find just the right board to fit your needs ... I wanted a more vintage look so I went with a board from a pallet that I had previously chopped up to make the welcome sign for our wedding. When you get your board is when you can measure the flags.

I used just plain lined paper to make a stencil of the size of flag I wanted (I tend to not be patient enough to figure out the math [everyone already knows I uber suck at math] to make the flags perfect ... I just put a piece of paper on the board and eyeballed it). From there I took the stencil and traced it onto both the canvas and burlap:

You'll notice that I didn't trace directly around the stencil ... I left about a millimeter on all sides ... I did this because I knew my lines weren't perfect and so this allowed for the ability to correct ... it also ensured that no matter what side the writing would be there would be no pen marks. Anyway ... after all of your flags are cut out you want to line your flags up on your board:

Doing this you are able to mark your board exactly where you want it cut (it is best to use one long board and cut it then everything will be the same width). The next couple steps can be done in any order ... Seeing as how we went over to my in-laws for the tools, what I did first was paint the letters on my flags.  I wanted my flags to say "give thanks" in honor of Thanksgiving coming up! I also decided to write my letters in cursive in honor of the flags at our wedding. Now ... it would be much easier and probably prettier if you used a stencil ... but I was too cheap to go buy one ... and so I free-handed it:

At this point I was still tool-less and so I decided to make some rosettes to go in a couple corners of the sign ... unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of doing that ... so ... um ... if you want I will happily do that tutorial later ... just lemmie know!

Back again ... R finally got home from work and we were finally able to go over to the in-laws (Thanks for offering your jigsaw Amanda! I just didn't trust myself to make a straight cut and Greg has a chop saw[thank you so much for letting me us it!]!) It was time to cut the board:

I made two cuts to make both pieces the perfect size! From there I laid the two pieces on a flat surface in the way I eventually wanted them to hang so I was able to make marks as to where I needed holes for the wire:

from there I used one of these huge drill thingys (you can also use a hand drill ... I don't know very many people who have one of these bad boys) to drill the holes:

This is the kind of wire I used ... I don't know the measurements for it ... It was what my very gracious father-in-law let me steal from him:

Next, Thread the wire through the holes:

Secure by using pliers and twisting:

I twisted the excess wire around a pencil ... you can do what you like with it though:

Next I punched holes in the canvas flags (the burlap ones just needed one or two lines cut) with this thingy-ma-giger (it gave just the right size hole ... thanks to my mother in law who let me borrow it from her craft room):

Thread the twine through these holes:

When I got the flags in the right place on the twine I put a glob of hot glue to keep in it place ... it is going to be outside:

Next thread the twine through the holes (the top board I used the same holes as the wire to hang it ... the bottom board has its own holes for the twine) and then tie a knot in the twine and put hot glue over it (again ... it will be outside and it needs to be secure):

Finally hot glue on the rosettes, hang when dry and viola! A beautiful new piece to hang on your front door (or anywhere you want!):

Don't you just love it! Enjoy making it!