Again, thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway!!  Congratulations to Jeannine for winning!
(Be sure to email me asap so I can start recovering your books 🙂 shaunna@harristire.com)
On to the next project and next tutorial….
I’m not sure what’s gotten into me, but I’m kind of into birds.
photo courtesy Pottery Barn
Really into birds….so when I saw this pillow a few months ago, I had to have it.  Except that it was $49.  It’s tiny!  Plus, it’s always hurt my heart a bit to spend as much on a throw pillow as I would 7 new pairs of jeans for the kids.  I finally got around to making my own knock-off.  I didn’t want it to look exactly alike–because of course I wanted a bird on it– and I knew I’d have to do something other than embroidery (because I’m still in the process of learning to sew, you see).
This is the finished pillow……
What do you think?  I mean, I know it’s not perfect, but hello, the name of the blog and all.  I wanted it to feel more hand-painted, not too much of a stamped feel.
Wanna know how I did it?  Well, I hope so…here goes.  Oh, if you make one, please, pretty please, let me know so I can check it out and post it!
I started with an existing throw pillow I already had (those are expensive, right?).  I found a pillow “slipcover” at Target for $4.99 so I thought I would try it out.  It fit well and it gave my pillow a whole new look without doing anything to it.  You know me….simple details add up to make big impacts on a room.
I used my cricut to cut some stencils (i’m not that artistic 🙂 and started playing around with the layout. (I bought the actual stencil pad to cut out with the cricut, but it was $12 for a small sheet….I felt just a tad too pricey.  So I tried it with leftover white scrapbook paper, taped it to my pillow cover, and it worked like a charm….if you’re even semi-careful with them, you can save them for the next time you need to paint the word “nest” somewhere. 🙂
I felt that pattern above was a little too busy, and it might just need a little birdie perched somewhere, so I decided to get my wording on first, then tackle the rest of the design.
Using an umber shade of acrylic paint, I dabbed it inside of the stencil, lightening the touch at the edges of the letters so they faded a bit more….I especially did this with the smaller text.
I wanted a tiny pop of color so I pulled the aqua in as a little flower–I mostly stenciled everything, except part of the bird, branch, and the little line borders.
and voi la!!
Alright, now go find you some inspiration and take the idea, er, I mean, let it inspire you!
–shaunna 🙂
**I’m linking this post to
Frugalicious Friday’s @ Finding Fabulous
Power of Paint @ Domestically Speaking
Show & Tell @ My Romantic Home
Trash to Treasure @ Reinvented
Frugal Friday @ Shabby Nest
Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Make your Monday @ Twice Remembered Cottage
Whew!  I think that’s all.  See you soon!
–shaunna 🙂