DiY Painted Burlap Door Hangers

If you’ve looked around at Hallmark or a few other specialty shops you have probably seen the painted burlap door hangers. They are super cute but very expensive. So I set out to make a few for gifts at a much lower cost. After a search on the internet and Pinterest I found quite a few pics of these cute door hangers but not a single tutorial. Through trial and error I worked my way through and came up with what I felt was the best process. 

Here is the process you should follow, not the one I started with but the one I found to be most effective, efficient and least messy after all was said and done! Check out the notes and tips at the bottom of the post before beginning your project.

You will need:
Burlap - size will vary according to project
Acrylic paints
Paint Brushes
Markers
Chalk
Sewing Machine with Strong Needle
Iron
Picture Hanging Wire
Clear Coat Finishing Spray Paint
Tissue Paper/Newspaper/or other stuffing agent
Scissors

1.       Take a piece of burlap folded in half and draw or trace the outline of your hanger. (make sure you iron out any wrinkles before you sew the two pieces together).

2.       Before you cut the pieces out sew three sides or around the hanger leaving a large enough gap for stuffing and your hand to fit inside the hanger. Do not cut off the excess at this point.

3.       Draw the hanger shape/picture/etc onto the burlap (if you will be doing a base coat you will only need the main outline).

4.       Paint the entire back of the burlap piece with your base coat color. Do thick coats to provide full coverage and fill the holes in the burlap. Let dry completely.

5.       Once the back is dry, flip and paint the base coat on the front (for some projects the entire piece will not have a base coat and for others it will-more on this later). Again, make sure the coat is thick and the holes are filled (this may actually take more than one coat). Make sure if the entire piece has a base coat that it dries completely first.

6.       After the base coat has dried cut the excess burlap around the outside.

7.       Use a fine tip marker or chalk to draw any images, shapes, designs you will be adding.

8.       Paint the added images. Let dry.

9.       Stuff your piece. This can be done with any number of things, grocery sacks, newspaper, tissue paper, etc. I used all of the above but most prefer the tissue paper. Stuff till the piece is full. 

10.   Sew shut the open space.

11.   Cut a piece of wire to the desired length. Take your wire and bend it to create a hanger.

12.   Use a sharp fine tip object to poke a hole through the top of the burlap and stick the wire through. Make sure you turn up the edges of the wire to create a good hold.

13.   If you’d like you can add a bow or additional decoration to the wire

14.   Spray paint a clear coat over the entire piece.

Here are a few pics of some of the finished projects:

Notes: I recommend starting with a simple shape first. I started with the basketball which was a great starter. Once you get your feet wet you can step it up to some really fun projects and start personalizing with teams on  a football or a name on a stocking, etc. 

Tip: For the basketball I only painted the black around the outside because I didn’t want the orange to be too dark from a black basecoat. For the crosses I painted the full piece with the base coat and then simply painted the designs on it after the base coat had dried completely.

Tip: Make sure you are working in a well covered area because the process can be very messy and you will also need to let the piece sit for a while to dry so don’t use your kitchen table that you’ll need in an hour for dinner (yes I did that). Once the piece has dried for a while hanging it up assists in shorter dry times.

Tip: You can use a stamp or stencil to create designs on items like the crosses.

Tip: You can use acrylic paint for the entire project but you will need A LOT for a full base coat so be prepared.

Tip: To create depth and the worn look (a bit more realistic then flat color) on something like the basketball use darker and lighter shades of the same color.

Tip: When you stuff your piece wear a glove (I just used a cheap stretch cotton glove) because the painted burlap is very rough and will tear up your knuckles.

Let me know how your door hangers turn out,
Daspri