Reversible Burlap Pennant Banner tutorial DIY

I am SUPER excited to be sharing this with you!!  I have seen a few tutorials on making reversible banners, but they involved ribbon covering the fold on the opposite side or just leaving it.  They were cute, but I have a touch of OCD so I wanted a cleaner look.

I researched many tutorials deciding first on how to make the actual triangle for the pennant (I will get to the actual process soon).  Once I determined the size of pennant I wanted to use, I then grabbed a sheet of regular paper and a scrap and started making a scaled down version to see if my plan would work.  Guess what??  It would!  I could now purchase the fabric and get ready to cut out my "diamonds".

Supplies

Burlap

Scissors/rotary cutter (and mat)

Cardboard (not necessary but easier)

Freezer paper or contact paper

X-acto knife

Letters to trace

Iron (if using freezer paper)

Craft paint

Brushes

Twine

Glitter (optional)

Modge podge/glue and water combo (if using glitter)

Glue gun (or whatever you want to use to glue together)

Grab your keys and head to your local fabric store!  As long as the fabric width is 44" (mine was 48") then you will need less than 1 yard.  There are many types of burlap.  Just get the one that calls to you.  Mine was $3.99 a yard but I had a 50% off coupon.  SCORE!
I picked up my craft paint at a big box store, because it is way cheaper than at the fabric store.  I got the rest of my items here as well.  So two trips isn't bad (even lugging four kids with you).

I am thankful I have a large cutting mat, about the size of my art table (saved from high school).  This was a present to myself a couple of years ago.  I believe I got it off amazon.com.  It is worth every penny!  Because of this mat and my rotary cutter I like to make templates of the object I will be cutting out of cardboard.  You don't have to do this but I find it much easier and more precise.
To make the template of my "diamond" I first need to make one triangle....that will be what the pennant will look like hanging.

I took a standard sheet of paper and folded in half the long way.  I have now found middle.  I then used a straight edge to draw a line from one corner to top middle on both sides.  I then cut out my triangle and then I cut about an inch off the bottom of the triangle.  I traced this on a piece of cardboard (try and find as pristine pieces you can).  I cut out two triangles and then tapped them together at the bottom, so that I could just make single ones later on and it was easier to store (I see more pennants in my future). 

One triangle.

Two triangles together making a diamond.

After cutting them out and having one of the triangles shift, it probably would be better to just cut out one piece, instead of two tapped together.  So it is up to you.  It worked fine, but some didn't come out the way I wanted, or I wasted some burlap because it didn't line up the way it should.
Now it is time to cut the fabric.  I laid the fabric out on my mat.  We are going to be working with the width of the fabric.  Lay your diamond so that the tip of one pennant length side.  The seam corner is on the edge where the fabric was cut.  I then used my rotary cutter and cut around my cardboard creating a diamond.  Then take your cardboard and move it so that the tip of it will touch the tip of the piece you just cut out, and the edge of the seam again will be on the cut edge (from the fabric store).  Cut.  Where the two tips met you will be able to fit the diamond template in there, cut again.  You should now have three diamonds.

This is the second batch of three.  You can see the tip to tip and then below where the third triangle is cut.

Repeat these and now you will have six diamonds and some triangles (and more) to boot!  Set them aside.
Next was determining the font I wanted to use.  I can't remember what I chose (sorry) but I do know that I  set the font to 320 to get it to the correct size.  I also found pictures on google images for the heart and shamrock.  I downloaded the picture and then on a word document made a picture box and adjusted the size to match up to the font size I used.  Totally eyeballed it!  I then printed these out.  You are going to be tracing these so it doesn't matter how many are on a page.
Next I cut strips of freezer paper (or contact paper....both worked great) about 4".  It should be wider than you letters with plenty of room for error.  Then I cut the strips large enough to accommodate the letters.  Once I cut out all my squares (I needed 12) now it is time to trace.  Lay the freezer paper (or contact) shiny side DOWN over the letters and trace out your design.  This part doesn't have to be perfect because you will be cutting over the line, so if you goof just fix it and move on.  Once that is complete it is time to cut out your letters.
I just used my big mat for this.  I recommend using a self healing mat, but you could use a magazine if you don't have one. Cut out the letters.  The shiny side should be the back of the letter.  You don't need the actual letters you need the square you cut them out of.  This is your stencil.  For the O you will also need the center portion.  Now it's time to bust out the iron....now where is that thing?  (I don't iron....ever!)
The iron will attach the freezer paper to the burlap.  If using contact paper you don't need to do this, however I decided to iron my burlap anyway.  Some pieces had creases where the fabric had been folded from being on the board, plus I decided to create a crease where you would fold the diamond to make a triangle.  I felt like the burlap handled pretty high heat (no steam...especially for attaching the paper) but I have no idea what the fabric calls for.  I ironed out all the creases I didn't want and then a created a crease at the top where the twine will go.  After I got the burlap nice and neat, it is time to attach the letters.  I started with the heart and shamrock.  This was easy and brainless. Just line up where you want the letter/object to be and lay the iron down "gluing" it to the burlap.  This doesn't take long if the iron is hot.  Then continue with the rest of the letters.   I almost made a huge mistake and put the L for Love and the L for Luck on the same pennant....this will not work when you turn it around.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Maybe the distraction of the four kids....yes I will stick with that argument.  After the shapes, I started with L on one side and E on the other.  U and V,  C and O, K and L (I hope this all makes sense!).

This is where the project starts to move along quickly.  Now that all your stencils are attached it is time to paint.  Grab your brush (I like foam type because it is better for dabbing because you don't want paint getting under your stencil), paint,  make sure your diamond is open and you have something under because the paint will bleed through and start dabbing.  I was impatient and didn't wait for the one side to dry before I painted the other.  It ended up being fine but you decided what works for you.

This is the contact paper.  Worked great.  Maybe a tad bit more difficult because getting the back off...but not really that hard.

Once the paint is all dry, next comes glitter.  This is optional.  I feel like the glitter made it just that much cuter, and I had a lot of different colors of glitter.  I used "matching" colors.  I also made my own Modge Podge.  For this craft I don't think it is necessary to use that nice of a medium.  So I just mixed a 50/50 mixture of glue and water (elmers or roseart...what ever you have on hand).  Your stencil is still on at this point!  You will take a foam brush and brush/dab on the glue mixture covering the painted area.  You don't need a ton.  Then sprinkle on your glitter.  I found holding the glitter higher up rather than close helped my not apply too much.  I tapped off the excess to be reused and moved on to the rest.  Let this dry completely.
I cut about 4 yards of twine.  I wanted options and to make sure I had enough.  Now it is time to break out the glue gun. I opened up the diamond but now the letters are facing down and I laid the twine in the crease.  I didn't want mine to be glued together because I wanted to be able to move and adjust them (and I thought about gluing one I had them placed where I wanted them....but nah).  I put a strip of blue about 1" below the crease, and making sure to hold the twine in the crease and out of the glue, I carefully folded the top half down attaching top and bottom.  Next I put a strip of glue down each side of the triangle, but only half way down.  I married up each edge and pressed it down.  Then I put more glue down the rest of each edge and finished.  I did it in steps for a couple of reasons.  One the glue cooled too fast trying to do a strip all the way down on both sides, plus they aren't perfect and it gave me time to marry up the edges on the top side and then adjust on the bottom if I needed.  So do this with the remaining pennants, making sure to spell it correctly!!  I tied a knot on one end and then hung up to the desired location and tied a knot at the other end.  I can move the pennants back and forth as I like (which is great because I move so much).
Now stand back and look at your handy work!  Cute right?!?!?!   I see a lot more of these in my future, how about you?