Just Another Hang Up: Last, but not least... my shabby chic creation

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Last, but not least... my shabby chic creation

This week I've been creating some pillows to bring a little springtime and softer colors to my entryway landing. As I said yesterday when I showed you pillow #2, I've chosen to "lighten up" this area of my entry and give it a tone on tone, cream-colored, monochromatic feel. It's easy on the eyes.

After making pillow #1, I decided the next two pillows had to be less busy, more simplistic designs. Even though pillow #3 is stenciled with an intricate scrollwork, the monochromatic feel of the design lends itself to a more simple approach.

I started by finding a damask scroll on the web that I liked. I copied it and enlarged it a bit to make this stencil...

Then I spent about an hour cutting out the stencil whilst watching Bill O'Reilly. It was torture. Feel free to take that any way you want. (I'm a big fan of Fox News -- Bill O'Reilly not so much.) Anywho, it did take some time to cut the stencil out and was a little grueling, but I'm ~~cheap~~ frugal and I'd rather make my stencils this way than spend $30-$40 purchasing one. This stencil cost nothing but the paper and my time.

I chose some paint, Apple Barrel Craft Paint in "Country Tan" that would give a tone-on-tone feel for the project. I ended up cutting the color of the paint even further by adding some white to it, so it ended up just a shade darker than the fabric I was using. For more detailed information on how to stencil on fabric, check out this post that I published last week. Suffice it to say this project required a little more skill because of the intricacy of the design, but I just worked a little faster (before the paper curled from the paint as it dried). I wanted a kind of softened washed out effect for the stencil, so I didn't worry about getting the coverage of the paint exactly the same all over.

I pumped up the color on this next photo a little so you could see the scrollwork better. It's much more subtle in person. Mmmmm-kay. We're ready for the reveal...

This morning I put the pillow together. Here she is in all her glory...

I know I've made about a bazillion pillows lately and you are probably getting sick of viewing yet another one.

Next week I'll move on to something different. Probably. Maybe. Most Likely. By the way, the statistics for this baby: $2. (I already had the pillow form.)

I have gotten some requests to make a tutorial about how I gather my fabric for pillows and other projects, so I'll whip a post up along those lines next week too.