Shillouhette Toss Pillows

I think I've recovered. One week, with three major trips in it is just waaaay to much! But after hiding under the covers for an extra few hours this morning, I'm full of ideas and ready to roll! Jenna is still in ill-ville, so just hang tight and her royal craftiness will be joining us soon!

So I'm not really sure how all those bloggers get away with posting their homemade Christmas gifts BEFORE Christmas. I can't, cause there'd be no surprise with the gift giving (Hi Mom). So here's a little ditty that I whipped up for my parents, and shoved into a box so we could have our U.S. Postal Service Christmas.

I started by taking a profile photo of each of my kids. I printed these ones out 5x7 but you can print them in any size to suit your needs. It really doesn't matter if their eyes are open or not because we're just looking for their shillouhettes.

You'll even be able to see in the next photo that I did a little hair styling when I cut out my daughter's photo. I've seen people flip their photos over, paint the back black and frame it against some white paper. Love that idea, but we're going to take these babies a few steps further.

Next I traced the shillouhettes onto freezer paper and cut them out. (Yes...this stuff is amazing!)

Then I ironed the freezer paper stencil down onto my fabric. It makes a super tight seal, which is perfect for painting!

Now when I painted these, I did not use fabric paint. I just used regular acrylic paint. I wanted to be able to age the painting, to make them look more antiqued. I did however, warn the recipient of the gift not to toss these pillows into the wash. Not entirely sure what would happen, but I'm sure it won't be pretty. So they have to be spot cleaned.

Although...It does look pretty cool just like this too!

The paint dries pretty fast. Which is perfect for notsopatient me. Before the paint has been dried on there forever, but after it doesn't look all....wet (yes, this is a scientific window of time), I took a wet toothbrush to it and just scrubbed away. If I happened to scrub too much off in an area, I'd just dip my wet toothbrush in the paint and scrub some paint back on there.

Then put the toothbrush back in the holder, and your husband will never know the difference.

KIDDING

Doesn't everybody have the old junk toothbrushes in the cleaning cabinet for such a project as this?!

Sew right sides out with a short stitch length and a 1 inch allowance all the way around. That sounded like I speak Singer. I don't. I just made sure the shillouhette was facing out when I sewed the pillow together (unlike a regular pillow that you later turn inside out to sew). You want to make sure the stitches are close enough together so when you fray the edges, the pillow doesn't fall apart. (There is a setting on your machine for that-just don't ask me where...actually, ask Jenna!)

Stuff it, and start pulling the threads to fray the edges of your pillow. I used a fabric that was burlapesque but not burlap. Burlap was too scratchy for me. I believe this was called monks cloth. Or something like that. (Sorry to the naked monk whose cloth I purchased to make a pillow).

And there ya have it!

La-te-dah!