Anniversary Banner

Last week my husband Dale and I celebrated the 25th anniversary of our first date. I made a little something special for him. Here's how:

I started by finding a nice heart shape and cutting it out of cardboard. I used this as a template to trace and cut 10 hearts out of burlap.

Because the burlap frays easily, I "painted" some Mod Podge on the edges of the backs of the hearts. This glue dries clear, so it can do the job without being seen.

Next I chose my felt. I used two shades of pink, two shaded of purple, and red. I made another heart template about a half inch smaller on each side than the burlap heart. I traced the shape with a black Sharpie on the back of the felt.

I cut the felt hearts out with pinking shears for a nice effect.

I pinned a felt heart to the center front of each burlap heart. As you can see, the Mod Podge, seeping through from the back, hadn't completely dried yet.

Then I strung a piece of twine between the felt and burlap. I alternated the heart colors as I threaded the hearts onto a single piece of jute twine.

Taking my hearts to my sewing machine, I used a long stitch to sew the felt to the burlap down the center of each heart. While doing this, I tried to keep the twine about an inch and a half from the top of each heart so that they would line up evenly.

The double layer of fabric was a bit heavier than I'd anticipated, so the twine wasn't quite doing the job of holding the hearts in place. So I slightly overlapped the side edge of the hearts, pinning them in place. Then I hand stitched / tacked the hearts into place with tan thread, couching the twine in the stitch.

The banner was complete! If I were to use this for Valentine's Day, It would be ready to hang.

But since this banner was for our anniversary, I added one more bit. I went to the computer, found a font I liked, and printed out the words "25 YEARS." I cut out the letters, then pinned them to the center of the hearts (I pinned between the two layers of the hearts so the pins wouldn't show, nor would they scratch the furniture). This way I can easily remove the letters and use the banner for Valentine's Day next year. 

I made simple slip knots to hang the banner from the headboard of our bed.

It was a nice romantic surprise for my Dale.

I was inspired by a couple ideas I saw on Pinterest:

and this