DIY Tutorial: Monogrammed Burlap Runner & Sack Cloth Kitchen Towels

{Source: HGTV}

BURLAP

It is showing up everywhere, isn't it? I think it is because of the great texture and inexpensive price. There is also something rustically chic about it too. 

Before the holidays I was looking for some quick, fun, unique and inexpensive craft projects I could make into gifts for friends and family that would also be considered useful.To be honest the more time I spend in Africa the harder it is for me to get excited about making something just to look at. Somehow it tugs on my heart as wasteful. Still, I really like to be creative, I love to do arts and crafts projects. So my search began for something fun, practical and creative. Pinterest is frequently a starting point for me and in my search I was seeing a lot of burlap. I had also been looking to no avail for towels with some charm for my kitchen.

When I stumbled upon many Burlap Table Runner projects they stirred my creative juices and I decided to create another product as well. Personalized Kitchen Sack Cloth Towels. If you have been following my blog you are having an aha moment right about now. Yes, indeed this is the follow up tutorial I promised you all from the Scribbles & Dots: Kids DIY Family Art Project for Gifts post. Here we go...

Lets start with the runner first.

 Monogrammed Burlap Table Runner Project.

Materials you will need:

-Burlap Table Runner Material 
 Burlap table runner as seen below (avail at craft stores or online) It comes in a variety of colors and     widths. So you can pick whichever width / color of burlap you prefer.
-Heat Transfer Iron-on Sheets - available at office supply stores, Walmart. They come in light or dark background - for the burlap table runner and my other DIY project I was planning I chose the light background.
-Iron (no STEAM setting only)
-Scissors
-Computer w/ design program
-Ink Jet Printer

Step 1.  Cut your burlap runner to the length you desire for your table. If you would like to sew under the ends you can - or I frayed the edges by sewing in about 1" from the edge then pulling 5 or 6 burlap strings out leaving the fringe look.

Next I needed to create my designs. I use CorelDraw to design - simply because I grew up in an industry using it over 25 years ago. There are several options for designing - photoshop or whatever you usually use to design with. I also found this amazing FREE Monogram Making site where you can design your own image and colors for FREE. Wedding Chicks has some really cool monogram designs that would be great for Weddings, stationery or home decorating projects.

I decided to create my monograms and my future project, towel designs, at the same time to avoid wasting material. The "N" you see on the right was designed on the Wedding Chicks site.

So once you have your designs ready to go it is time to set up the print page. Make sure you mirror your image either on the screen or within your print instructions. (In other words it will look backwards until you iron it on.)

Finally you are ready to print away. Once printed you will want to trim your image to within a 1/4" of the printed area. Once you design is all trimmed it is time to place it on the desired area and iron it on. (Follow transfer paper directions closely) no matter what brand you have purchased you never want to use steam setting. So make sure your iron is bone dry. 

Let cool briefly and peel. (Again follow directions on transfer paper instructions)

I LOVE the way this one turned out. It was SO EASY and inexpensive. 

I made this table runner a bit long because I knew we would be putting in a leaf for entertaining. 

 I think I have about $10 total in this table runner. Now that is cheap and super fun! Now to place the table decor on top of it! 

Personalized Sack Cloth Kitchen Towel Tutorial

The process is pretty much identical for the Kitchen Flour Sack Dish Towel Project as it was for the Burlap Runner.One of the main differences is you will want to make sure to wash and dry your towels prior to applying your iron-on transfer image. 

You print out your designs onto the heat transfer sheets just as mentioned in the Burlap Runner instructions. Then you want to trim it to the same 1/4" border.

Iron towel to remove wrinkles. Place graphic printed iron-on in place on towel and iron as directed in instructions. Do not slide around.

Cool and peel.

VOILA...

These ended up so cute. I wish I would have had a finished photo for you of the final presentation. My daughter had crocheted colorful cotton dish rags and we wrapped the folded towels, dish rag and a wooden spoon with natural twine for our gift giving presentations. They were charming. 

I wish I would have stumbled on this site before by Blissfully domestic. They have a fabulous post on the many ways to use a sack cloth towel. It would be a fabulous idea to attach a "Ways to use" instruction tag that is cleverly dressed. 

I hope this not only gives you a simple step by step tutorial to follow but that it also inspires you to create a new project of your own. There are so many opportunities to monogram, personalize and BEAUTIFY! 

-Simply Sublime

Our Trunk - Your Treat... Flintstone's Style

For years, when the eldest girls were younger, our family was known for it's wacky creativity. We had so much fun with dressing up in a theme for the whole family. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago our youngest, Nate, brought to our attention our desperately low rating on the dress up fun factor. Instantly I was humbled by a few factors: 1) I am getting old  2) I am getting tired, and  3) I am not as fun as I used to be.

Well we simply could NOT have our Nate Boy
missing out on the richly dressed Ryan Family Heritage.  Our Natester deserved to have some fun fanatical family memories. So we signed up to be a trunk at our churches annual community TRUNK or TREAT. A Halloween event in a BIG Ole parking lot FULL of decked out cars, where adults in costumes dole out candy to the thousands lined up for the event.

Okay now that we had signed up for the festivities it was time to get to work.... Let the creativity begin. After a family meeting we all voted in the FLINTSTONES theme. So being limited on time we ordered the costumes on Ebay and another discount costume site. We found some fabulous deals on our outfits that could not have possibly been created for the same low cost. Now for the trunk....

We gathered some BIG boxes of cardboard. Next was time to surf the net for Flintstone Images. We took the images and enlarged them in a design program - then printed them out in panels. Super simple, super cheap.

A lot of cardboard, some printed computer images, tape...we were on our way to a GREAT beginning. After getting our cave walls created we needed another boost of creative juice. Next we needed signage (I grew up in a family sign business so you know we HAD to have a sign) and so I found a piece of old styrofoam and some spray paint - painted it up like a rock.  I printed out the "Flintstone" logo surrounded it with some battery operated Christmas lights - VOILA. Check that off...hmmm....what next....We had a white fur rug in our girls room. Took a battery camping lantern and made a mock shade for it with animal print fabric. A large artificial tree... we were getting close to completion. Pulling this together was ending up pretty simple, inexpensive and fun for our whole CLAN!

Look past our goofy selves and see if you can spot barney in the back - he is watching a tv which is attached to the back of a box and placed about 2 or 3 ft in front of him in the cave. We put a standing flashlight on the back side of the tv so it would appear to be lit up as if he was really watching it. See the glow? It also provided light for people to see inside the cave.

For a very low budget project I am SUPER proud of how our cozy litttle CAVE turned out. The response from the crowd was heartwarming. The parents who are usually in a moping state of mind as they walk their kids around in the windy, rainy weather would arrive at out Trunk and hear the Flinstones Theme song playing... they would start bouncing to the beat and smiling. Next thing we knew many wanted their pictures taken in BEDROCK with their Flinstone friends. So precious.

You know what was the VERY BEST about it? Our family had so much fun TOGETHER! AND... we have the photos to prove it! So Nate won't be looking back anytime soon and saying... "Why don't we ever...."

• We have
• We did and... 
• We will continue to make FUN a family priority

YABA DABA DOOOOOOOO

-Simply SUBLIME