Stenciled Pillow

Did you know that we have blank canvas and burlap pillows in the store? These pillows look great all on their own, but we also love to see how crafty individuals pretty them up for home décor! They are the perfect starting point for sewing, applique, painting, misting, screen printing, and whatever else you might want to do with them! Crew member, Marie Nicole, shows us what she did with her little 10×18″ canvas pillow, a little Tattered Angels paint, and her Cricut!

Creating your own stencils for you home décor projects can be a breeze using your digital cutting machine (in this case, my Cricut) and some plain contact paper. I have a huge roll of contact paper in my craft room leftover from my teaching days. Not only does it work for crafts and laminating, but you can cut it like vinyl on your Cricut to create a stencil of almost any image.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Canvas Corp’s 10×18″ canvas pillowcase
Tattered Angels DIY and Décor Paint
Cricut or digital cutting machine
Clear contact paper
Stiff paintbrush or foam brush

For my pillowcase, I cut out the word “hello” using a SVG file I downloaded for free. I just sized the file to the size I wanted, set my Cricut cutting dial to “vinyl”, and cut! If you have the correct setting, the Cricut will cut through the contact paper but not the release paper behind it, which is exactly what I wanted.

After your stencil is cut, “weed” out the pieces that you don’t need. For my stencil, I didn’t need the positive space from the word “hello”. I peeled the word up, but saved the inside pieces that would go in between the letters “L”, “E”, and “O”.

TIP: Be very careful while peeling your contact paper stencil away from the release paper! If the contact paper peels back and sticks to itself, it can be almost impossible to in-stick it!

Once you have your stencil peeled away from its release paper backing, stick it down to your surface. I obviously used this pillowcase, but you could also use a tote bag, a wooden sign, t-shirts, anything! Make sure that the edges of your design are stuck down very well. You want to avoid the paint seeping under the edges and causing bleeding! It might also be a good idea to put a piece of scrap paper or fabric behind the surface you are working on, so paint doesn’t soak through to the backside.

I didn’t have any problems with my stencil bleeding or having any paint show through to the other side. This canvas is pretty thick, so if you add paint in smaller amounts it doesn’t really leak.

With your stencil stuck down, its time to paint! Grab your paintbrush and your desired paint and slowly add color to your stencil. I used my paintbrush to pull in paint from the sides, rather than starting from the middle and going out. I didn’t want to risk accidentally peeling up the stencil.

Once all the images areas are painted, slowly and carefully peel off the stencil! Give your project ample time to dry before adding any other embellishments or setting it on your furniture! I just added a ruffled canvas flower to my pillow and called it done!

This little pillow turned out so simple and cute! This would be a great project to do when making gifts or customizing different fabrics or surfaces. Contact paper can be found in most department stores, and is much cheaper than vinyl, making it easy to do many projects with it! Make t-shirts for your group, tote bags for gifts or for yourself, and any kind of wooden sign or home décor. You could even use your stencil over chalkboards to help you with doing that tricky chalkboard art! Endless possibilities!