Guest Blogger: Nashville Pug
Good Morning Friends :o)
Please join me in welcoming Beth from NashvillePug to A Step in the Journey!
Please join me in welcoming Beth from NashvillePug to A Step in the Journey!
. . . . .
Hello fabulous “A Step in the Journey” readers! My name is Beth, and I am thrilled to be with you today! When I heard that Laura Beth was asking for guest bloggers, I jumped at the chance to be featured on her amazing blog. Any other day, you can find me blogging over at NashvillePug, where I like to share decorating and DIY projects, and the occasional post about my crazy 2 1/2 year old daughter. I love DIY, and I share my projects because if I can do it, anyone can!
Today I’m sharing my stenciled burlap pillow covers with you. I found these burlap pillow covers at the Ballard Designs outlet in Atlanta, and when I saw they were $5 each, I scooped up four! I knew immediately that two of them needed to reside on our front porch. Burlap is so awesome, but stenciled burlap is even better!
For this stenciling project, I used freezer paper. For those of you not familiar with freezer paper stenciling, check out this tutorial. It is so easy!! I’ve been wanting some personalized pillows for our front porch with our monogram and house number, so that’s what I decided to do. I found a font in Word I liked, enlarged the letters and numbers to fit the scale of the pillows, printed them out, and then used my X-acto knife to cut the stencil out on the freezer paper. An X-acto knife is really key to cutting out the stencil since you want really precise cuts so the paint won’t leak under the paper.
To make my paint fabric-ready, I added some fabric medium to it. You can also buy paint made specifically for fabric, but I didn’t have any of that kind of paint.
Here is my stencil all cut out and ironed onto my fabric. The shiny side of the freezer paper goes against the fabric, and once ironed, adheres to the fabric until you peel it off. So cool! I didn’t take pictures of the stencil cutting process because, honestly, I was too engrossed in cutting and making sure I didn’t mess up!
Before you begin to paint, make sure you place something under the fabric so the paint does not bleed onto the other side. I used aluminum foil for some strange reason, but it worked really well. I used a sponge brush to paint the fabric so I could help push the paint into the rough burlap. I just dabbed a generous amount of paint all over the fabric to make sure it was well covered.
Here’s what your stencil will look like once it’s been painted. You should not have to worry about it bleeding around your stencil if it’s been ironed on well. You’re supposed to leave the paper on the fabric until it is dry (about 24 hours), but this impatient stenciler pulled it off after only about 15 minutes! I couldn’t wait, and it turned out fine! I guess you could have a problem if you ended up needing another coat of paint…
The house number pillow is my favorite! I think it will add such a personal touch to our front porch. The layout of your numbers will depend on how many you have. I made one for my Mom as well using three numbers placed diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.
Don’t forget to save any small pieces of paper that go inside letters and numbers like the ones for the “8”. Let your paint dry a few minutes hours, then peel off your paper!
Let me tell you, it was so much fun peeling off that freezer paper and seeing perfectly stenciled letters and numbers! I now see why so many bloggers say freezer paper stenciling is addictive!
Here’s a completed pillow looking pretty on our front porch!
A little side by side comparison. Please forgive the super dirty rocking chairs! They need a really good scrub down, but it’s cold outside!
Have you stenciled with freezer paper? I hope I’ve inspired you to give it a try! Please come visit me over at NashvillePug, and thanks again Laura Beth for having me!
Thanks Beth for hanging out today! I’ve never tried freezer paper stenciling before, but after this fabulous tutorial I might need to head out and make a purchase!!
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this is really great!
Thank you so much for having me today! It was a privilege to be a guest on your blog! Happy New Year!