Wednesday, June 9, 2010

It's Craft Time - Burlap and Freezer Paper Stencil Coasters


This is another project I made weeks ago when my friend Alison was visiting. She did the sewing and I did the stenciling.

First make sure when you purchase burlap that it is cut on the straight of grain. With mine, the lady at Joanns just cut it and I wasn't paying attention. When I brought it home and trued it up I lost almost a 1/3 yard of fabric.

Cut a burlap square for each coaster you want to make. Mine are 5" square. Cut one square of craft felt 1/4" smaller than the burlap square.  Use pinking sheers and cut the edges so they have a nicer appearance. Center a piece of felt on a burlap square. Stitch 1/8"  in  from the edge of the felt all the way around the coaster. Hand sew a running stitch using colored floss on your sewn line. I lightly frayed the edges of my coaster by pulling out a burlap thread or two on each side.

For the stencil, find an image you like. My experiment piece was a retro starburst flower type of design. It looked great but took me longer to cut out with an exacto knife than I was willing to spend. Once I had the freezer paper stencil process down I used an image of a bird that was much quicker to cut out with a pair of scissors. Use your computer software to size your picture to what you need. I used Photoshop, but you can use whatever drawing / painting program you have and are comfortable with. Print the picture and hold it up to the coaster to double check your size.

Transfer the picture to the dull side of your freezer paper. I found it easiest to tape my picture to my window put up a piece of freezer paper with the shiny side toward the window and trace on the dull side. Trace as many images as you have coasters. Each stencil can only be used once. Make sure you leave plenty of room around each image as you will be cutting out the image and need the "frame" around it left intact.

Iron the cut out stencil (shiny side down) onto the coaster. It only takes a second or two to adhere with a hot iron. You can also eye ball and iron on any pieces which were not attached to your stencil. I had the piece between the birds legs and the branch to iron down. Paint within the stencil with your choice of regular craft paint. Paint with a pouncing motion instead of a sweeping motion. Let the paint dry for 5 minutes or so and peel off the freezer paper stencil. Let the paint dry completely before using the coaster.

With the bird coasters, I stenciled first and Alison sewed when they were done. With my second set of coasters, Alison had already sewn the coaster and then I stenciled. Both sequences worked fine.



Linking up to these wonderful parties!



13 comments:

  1. What an easy and affordable craft idea! These would make cute gifts made in sets of 4 or 6, tie them up with a super cute ribbon and stick in a pretty bag! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. These are so cute. I love how they turned out.


    heather

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  3. I agree with Liz...what a great gift idea! They turned out so cute! Thank you for sharing.
    Debbie@houseatthelake

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  4. These are adorable! Love how they turned out - thanks for sharing this! ~Marcy

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  5. Love these! I have to try that freezer paper approach one of these days! That and the nail polish remover approach!

    Jeanine

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  6. Oh my gosh these are so pretty. I love the blue.

    I am hosting a giveaway and would love it if you checked it out!

    Laura @ along for the ride

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  7. These are adorable! I love that you and your friend collaborated while she was visiting! I would for your to share this at my Practice Hospitality party this week if you get a chance!

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  8. Those are so cute! Great job!
    suchakingdom.blogspot.com

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  9. Great idea! Thanks for sharing how to make them @ Anything Related!
    {Rebekah}

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  10. Adorable! Thanks for linking @Creative Itch's "Sew Cute Tuesday"!

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  11. Came from girl creative...these are BEAUTIFUL. They totally caught my eye right away. I love the birds, the colors, the fabric. Well let's just say you did an awesome job.

    Stop by sometime, I could always use more brilliantly creative bloggy friends.

    Larissa
    Just Another Day in Paradise

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  12. so cute, i'd be the stencil-er too. i can't sew too well. good thing my partner to lolly jane {aka my twin sis} can! ;)kelli

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  13. Very cute idea! I am making cafe curtains out of burlab and looking for a easy stenciling idea! I want to stencil owls n birds on my curtains! And yes these little coasters would make a cute gift!

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