My 3 Monsters: Day 25: Stenciled Burlap Placemats

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10.25.2011

Day 25: Stenciled Burlap Placemats

I love words.  Reading words, writing words . . . decorating with words.  It's kind of an obsession.  I have to make a conscious effort to find actual picture art for my home to keep it from looking like a classroom.  Sometimes I just can't help myself, like when I saw these placemats from Cottage and Vine on Pinterest.

I think they're fantastic.  And it's OK to have placemats with words on them because they're not out all the time, right?  Plus it's very educational for my children.  They will never be at a loss for synonyms for the word eat.  Which may or may not come in handy on the SAT someday.  I however did have to use a thesaurus to come up with eight.

 
Not pictured:  feed and graze.  I was too lazy to put the leaf in the table and pull in two extra chairs just to stage a picture.  {Apparently I couldn't be bothered to put the milk and board game away either.  Whatever.} I figure you're smart enough to imagine what those words might look like stenciled onto a burlap placemat.  You're welcome.  {Be a dear and imagine my house clean while you're at it.} There were not really any guidelines on the site that this pin links to so I'll share some of my helpful tips with you:

1.  I cut my burlap pieces 12" by 18" and that seemed like a pretty good size.  I zig-zagged around about 3/4 of an inch in from the edges and pulled away the strings to fray them to that point.  The zig-zag stitching will keep them from unraveling with use.

2.  The font I used was Garamond Bold at 250 point size.  It's just interesting enough to not be plain and just plain enough to not detract from the simple look I wanted.  Not that I know anything about fonts.  I just know what I like.

3.  Burlap is a little different to freezer paper stencil on because it is such an open weave.  I like to iron a piece of freezer paper to the back side of the fabric and then iron the stencil on the front.  I feel like that helps the paint to not spread and smear too much.  Also, you want to be sure and not use too much paint -- just enough to cover your design completely with an even layer of paint.  Don't gob it on there.  

Easy cheesy!  I can't wait to serve my family dinner tonight.  My kids have each picked their favorite:  Sydney is nosh, Dylan is munch,and Riley is chow.  Brent and I usually just want to eat.  Maybe I should have made two of those . . . I think these would be so fun on a Thanksgiving table.  They were cheap and easy enough that you could use them just once a year {or even just once} and still feel good about it.  I, however, will use them nightly.  They're just that fun.  Come back tomorrow for a cool, casual bracelet project.  

For a complete list of all 31 projects click here:



8 comments:

  1. They look great and just the right amount of whimsy too!

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  2. Thanks for featuring my placemats! Yours turned out great!

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  3. Hi!
    I love this idea and your set turned out so cute!
    Can I ask what type of pain you used?
    Thanks,
    S

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  4. I really love them, truly genius. Can yoynplease educate me about the bit on getting the words on the fabric. I'm clueless and would really appreciate a link to a tutorial.

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  5. Can you explain or send me a link with a good explanation/tutorial of how to do the freezer paper/stenciling?

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  6. I LOVE this idea and your tutorial is great! I'm sharing it with my Eljah*B fans: www.eljahb.etsy.com .
    I invite you and your followers to stop by:) I'll be back often!! Great blog!

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  7. What kind of burlap did you use? Where did you purchase it?

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