AFTER THE PARTY . . .

No posts since last Thursday!

And I can see that I've had many faithful visits to my blog since then.

Only to come back to see the same old thing.

Sorry.

Our house has been a busy place lately.  We're getting ready for a very big party in a few days, to celebrate a very big deal!  As I explained in a previous post here, we have reason to celebrate!   Getting ready for that celebration is what has been keeping me off this little blog lately.  I'll be sure to post photos next week.  

However.

That does NOT mean my mind hasn't been flooded with ideas and projects.  One of my ideas is to make something out of good old burlap.  Burlap is all over the decorating blogs and we're using a bunch of it at our party too - more on that later.  But when the party is over . . . what to do with all that burlap?  Maybe incorporate it into a pillow?  Or two, or three???  Here are some great pillows I've been browsing through to get me inspired!  Some are burlap, some are not, but they could ALL be made with some burlap.  If I don't use burlap for the front of the pillow, I could certainly use it for the back.  I think some people might be bothered by the feel of burlap pillows against the skin, but I really like that texture on a pillow.  

This one is a kit you can order here.  Beautiful out of any fabric but wouldn't it be great in burlap?

Anthropologie

Anthropologie, again!

And, again!

Beautiful stitching!  Doesn't the coming of Fall make you want to stitch??

Very whimsical!  My niece would love this one!

Birds!  How I love birds!

A beautiful bird transfer pillow featured on the Graphics Fairy.

And one of my favorites!

What a wonderful thing to be able to say to the one you love!  I have an idea beyond the pillow for this one!

When the party is over and everything is cleaned up and put away I'm going to be getting some of those ideas out of my head and into some fabric.  So, lookout all you friends-who-sometimes-are-roped-into-crafting-get-togethers 
at my house!  Get out your needle and thread and get ready!

French Rose Labeled Pillows

Today I designed a pillow using an old french rose label from the Graphics Fairy.  To make your own, you'll need to pull your chosen graphic into a word processing program - I used "Pages" on my mac.  Then, bring in a text box and pick a font you like to add whatever text suits your fancy.  I have a favorite font for things like this - it's called "Jane Austen".  (How can you go wrong with a name like that?)  It's feminine and old fashioned looking.  You can download it free here.  The oval on the bottom of the graphic seemed fitting for a monogram . . . I put in ours.

So, once you have your design just the way you like it, you need to get it ready for the printer.  Cut a piece of freezer paper and your fabric, to 8 1/2 x 11 inches.   The freezer paper gives the fabric body so that it can go through the printer.  Iron the shiny side of the freezer paper onto your fabric.  It will adhere very quickly using a dry iron on the cotton setting.  I used a thin cotton fabric and even with the freezer paper my printer would not recognize the fact that there was paper there, so I had to use spray adhesive to add a piece of cardstock to the freezer paper side.  That gave a nice, heavy backing to the fabric and then it worked just fine.  If you use something like canvas, the freezer paper will be enough.

Since you're already limited to the size of a sheet of paper due to what the average printer will accept, I think it's a good idea to enlarge the clip art to the size of a full sheet of paper in order to get the biggest pillow possible.

 It printed out great - the first time I tried!

 Then, just pull the freezer paper off the back of the fabric.

You'll have a piece of printed fabric ready to create whatever your little heart desires!  I'm making my printed fabric into pillows for the guest room with twin beds - one for each bed.  Both pillows have French script.  One reads, "Good Night", and the other reads "Dream Away"!  I'm going to try spraying some sample printed fabric with a fabric protector.  I doubt that printer ink is washable, so you'll want to avoid getting it wet etc.  Tonight I finished the one that says "Good Night" - and I'm going to take that advice and finish the other one tomorrow.  

Bonne Nuit!

Linking to:

and

and

Air Your Laundry Friday

and

Frugalicious Friday

and

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

and

Funky Junk Interiors

One guest room done!

In thinking that I had a long weekend ahead (four days), my goal was to get enough done that I could post both guest rooms.  That didn't happen.  But one of them did get done.  

It's frothy.  

And feminine.  

And pink! 

 

 

When summer comes, and I have more time, I have plans for a headboard for the bed . . . 

This is a little framed piece matted in pink velvet showing an ad for my great-grandfather's shoe store!

  And a lacy potpourri bag I got with my mother while in Ireland.

I repainted the little table.  It was way too pink for me.  You can see the pink coming through the white on the table now - instead of the white coming through the pink!  

Here is the chandelier that came from the flea market in McKinney.

A comfy place to sit . . . slipcover is compliments of my mom, a master seamstress!

We are ready for guests!

This post is linked up with Furniture Feature Friday, and A Bowl Full Of Lemons home tour.