Brought to you in partnership with Painters
I don’t know about you guys, but once fall is upon us, we begin a fairly intense season of entertaining. With both holidays and a massive number of birthdays that all happen in a four month period, I am always in need of simple yet gorgeous ideas for gifts and that add a bit of that something special to my décor when I am playing host! This is just one of those projects that would be a fabulous hostess gift, a much appreciated gift for new homeowners or newlyweds, and would add that holiday sparkle to your table in a snap.
Psst… Painters is having a monthly contest between now and December where you can make your own amazing creations using Painters. They are giving each monthly winner a prize valued at $500! Yahoo! There will be five different themes for the Style by Aisle with Painters Contest (through December) based on store “aisles.” You can submit photos of your homemade creations on elmers.com/painters, and while you are at it, download a coupon and go crazy with colors or tips. Go to the website to learn more!
November’s theme is Kitchen + Dining so get crafting and share your creations on social media with #StyleByAisle and #PaintersStyle. This contest officially launches Nov. 2 so start dreaming up something good!
While this particular tutorial walks through the steps for making napkins, just know that this method will work for most fabric based projects, so grab your painters and let’s get to it.
I decided to use linen because it is the epitome of casual luxury, which is my preference for pretty much everything. It also happens to be really easy to tear, which for me, is a much more reliable way to get straight edges. Dinner napkins are typically 20-22 inch squares for an informal setting so I went with 20 and marked off the dimensions by giving each corner a little cut with my scissors. That cut then worked as my starting point to rip the fabric into cute little squares. Depending on the amount of fabric you have, you can very likely rip a strip that is 20 inches wide, then rip that into 20 inch sections for a bit of mass production on this step.
I chose a metallic gold Painter with a medium round tip for my napkins in white linen and a silver metallic for those on the darker linen.
If you are working on a pattern that is location specific with rows or columns, start by folding your napkin as you would for a place setting. That would be in half, and then in fourths by folding the sides inward to the half way point and then in half again. This will create a nice guide for making sure your design is sitting pretty when it is folded and set out.
I wanted coordinating patterns that are each different and yet all work well together and would dress things up without shouting ‘Christmas’ or ‘fall’ specifically. A retro star, abstract plaid, and dotty confetti pattern are a fabulous trio and there are dozens of possibilities here. Think monograms or hand lettered words like ‘cheers’ and ‘celebrate’… I’m essentially ready to decorate all the things everywhere! This project is actually simple enough that you can even get personal and use this as a sweet little take away that also plays the role of place cards for your dinner party guests with their names decoratively written on their very own napkin. If you make those napkins slightly larger, they can double as a tea towel and you will essentially blow their minds!
For a more abstract pattern that doesn’t involve written words or monograms, you don’t need the fold guides, but you should add your design to both ends of your napkin so that it looks good regardless of how it is folded.
TIP // Keep your tip wet by replacing the lid and giving your painter a bit of a shake or by pressing it onto a piece of paper. Once you reload the paint, be sure to give it a bit of use on a paper or scrap fabric so you don’t end up with bleed from an overflowing marker.
There are no less than one million color options available in the Painters (fairly certain that is an accurate number, but don’t quote me on it) and several tip styles to choose from including chisel style and fine point, so you can create anything your heart desires.
Once you finish your designs, you will want to heat set them with a household iron. I chose my heat setting based on the type of fabric and made sure to keep my iron moving in a circular motion for about 30 seconds for all areas of my design.
Start to finish this project took no more than twenty minutes and a decent portion of that was spent contemplating my design so this has definitely become a major fave in my list of creations. I have big plans for these in the coming months, so hopefully my family isn’t reading right now – fingers crossed!
This project was brought to you in partnership with Painters Style by Aisle. Thank you guys for supporting the brands that help bring fresh new content like this to The Design Confidential! I heart you guys. All opinions and ideas are my own.
