Last week on a trip to my favorite thrift store, I found a place mat for 25¢. Well, let me re-phrase that. I thought I had two place mats. Even the guy who rang up my order thought I had two. He was going to charge me for two anyway, until the lady putting the items in the bag assured him it was 25¢ total. Imagine my disappointment when I got home and realized I only had one. Grrr =(
Well, since I was still planning to make it into a pillow, I made an executive decision. Isn’t it nice to be your own boss and be able to do that? I decided to use up some more of the canvas drop cloth I had on hand. Man, that stuff lasts…for.ev.er. I bought a 6′ x 9′ drop cloth at Lowes back in August to repair my yard sale director’s chairs and then used some leftovers to make leaf pillows.
Now that I had a defined plan, time to put it into action.
I knew I wanted to put our last initial in the center. I opened up Word, typed a capital C and scrolled through the fonts until I found one I liked. This is Algerian at 650. You have to click next to the font name and type the size. I made it big enough to fill the page.
I used an Exacto knife to carefully cut out the letter and leave a negative space to use as my stencil.
To attach the stencil I used spray adhesive.
Following the directions for temporary bond, spray lightly and wait 3-5 minutes until tacky. Then I just eye-balled the center of the mat and smoothed the stencil down.
I used 2 different shades of metallic copper acrylic paint and a stiff bristled paint brush.
I swirled the paint into the fabric, starting with the darker shade first. Then I went back around the outer edge with the lighter shade.
The paper started to release once it got wet with paint so I quickly peeled off the stencil. Except for a couple minuscule boo-boos, it turned out really well.
To complete the pillow casing, I stitched a piece of canvas to the right side of the place mat leaving a 4″ opening to fill. Flipped it right side out and filled with polyester fiber fill. To close up the opening, I just fired up the glue gun and sealed the hole. (I was just too lazy to pull the thread off the sewing machine and find a needle to stitch it closed.)
And here is the final product….
Thrifty tip of the day…. Always make sure you know what you’re paying for.
Please take a minute to scroll down and leave a comment. I would love to know what you think. Did this inspire you? Will you use this as a jumping off point for your own project? Or just say – Hi, I was here. Comments are the only way to let me know what you are thinking. If you enjoyed, please share with your friends or followers. Thanks =)
Andrea
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Kirsten
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Jamie
Looks great! I have been stenciling a ton lately, most of it on burlap. I’m following you now
I’d love if you stop by my blog sometime when you get the chance!
jamie@sewrockin.com