Adventures in Burlap

First off let me say that this is NOT an original idea from me. I saw it on Pinterest and Etsy and wanted to try it out. Please know that I'm not trying to steal anyone else's idea and I don't take credit for coming up with this.
But I was so happy with how these place mats turned out that I thought I'd share it with my friends on here and encourage you all to try them for yourself. This is the way I did it, maybe there's better ways of going about it. But I'm just going to share what I did :) 

To begin with, I needed burlap. We found ours at Walmart and bought two yards for a little over $5.00.

It was more than plenty to do my four place mats. And now I have a lot left over for future projects, yay! :)

Next I needed stencils. We also found these at Walmart. You could try to free hand these letters on the placemat but I wanted them all to be uniform. Stencils were the way to go for me. I also needed a good, thick Sharpie :) 

A good sharp pair of scissors was a necessity. And it also helped to have a ruler or some other straight edge to help me mark straight lines to cut.   

My place mats were 18" by 14". I measured and cut them out and then it was on to the stencils!

Jonathan suggested that I start with the last letter of each word on the place mat and work backwards. This helped me so I wasn't running out of room without knowing it. Also it's good to place a thicker piece of paper underneath the burlap when you stencil. This keeps the Sharpie from getting onto whatever table you're working on. 

And with a little patience and carefulness I was finished with this one! 

I then took a break to eat leftover lasagna. This picture makes it look regurgitated, but I assure you, it was delicious! 

After my little break I was motivated to carry on and after awhile I was able to enjoy the finished product.

The Nom-Nom one was Jonny's idea. Hilarious ;)

 I plan on stitching around all the edges eventually to keep them from fraying. But for now I enjoy seeing them on table whenever I walk by. Go make you some! Make them for your home or give them as a personalized gift to someone. They're inexpensive, easy to make, and so cute. It doesn't get much better than that :)