No sew monogram: it’s done with paint!

I recently became acquainted with a wonderful blogger named Rene’ who blogs at Cottage and Vine…I was inspired by a post she wrote  on how to do paintable monograms and images…. so that is what I am posting about today!!! To check out her wonderful examples click  here  and here.

Below is a picture of my finished, painted on, Monogram….I am so happy with the way it turned out!!! A Big thanks to Rene’ from Cottage and Vine, I wouldn’t have done it without her!!!!!

Here is the step by step:

1 pillow cover

freezer paper (you must use freezer paper :))

Acrylic paint or fabric paint if it’s an item you are goint to wash a lot.

First you decide on a font and enlarge it on the computer screen. Below I snapped a picture of my computer screen with the letter I used. If you look close you can see the font name and size…I also increased the image to 200 %. I wanted the font approximately 3.5 inches tall. The pillow shown is a 20inch square fill area. PB has 20″ napkins in this pattern…but when you sew the 20″ napkins…and you figure your seam allowance it becomes more like an 18 inch fill area. If you use the napkin size, I would make my letter more like a 3″ Check out the napkin pillow post here.

Next lay a piece of freezer paper on your computer screen and trace the letter(shiny side touching the screen).

I had to clean my letter up a bit before I cut it out :)….you could also print your letter and enlarge it on a copier instead of tracing it off the screen.

Next, cut your letter out with an  exacto and iron it on your pillow….. shiny side down…. this is very important because when you Iron on top of the paper with the shiny side touching the fabric, it sticks to the pillow and creates a seal for your letter. (Don’t worry, it peels right off so easily) I want to mention that cutting your letter out carefully is very important!!! If you over cut your paper with the razor blade…especially the straight edges and corners…. be sure and put a piece of tape over that spot ….you don’t want paint leaking.

To find my center point of the pillow I just folded the pillow in half and then forths and placed a straight pin right at the center point. Next I found the center of the letter and matched the two up….. then I ironed the design in place.

Time to paint! If you don’t have acrylic paint you can find it at any craft store…..decide what color will coordinate with the pillow and show up well. I used Burnt Umber and a tad of Titanium Buff Light to tone down the color.

I blended the two colors on a paper plate and cut a little piece of sponge off my Mr Clean Majic eraser. (that was the quickest thing I could find that resembled a sponge in our home…. so I improvised)

Next dab the paint out of your sponge a bit so it doesn’t glob on. Don’t forget to put something on the backside of where you are going to paint so it doesn’t leak through. Gently dab the paint on the letter… being careful not to rub….you don’t want the edges to come loose and you don’t want a real heavy think layer of paint. After mine was coated well I dried it quick with a blow dryer.  I noticed a few little areas that needed retouched so I dabbed on a bit more paint with the sponge and blew it dry again. Acrylic paint dries so fast, it only takes about a minute.

Now the fun part…peel off the paper to reveal the design 🙂

finished!!