You can paint a happy little pillow like this for Valentine's Day, or just to celebrate how you feel. And after you see how easy it was to do, you might just want to try this technique for all kinds of designs, messages, and personalization on fabric.
The technique is called "paper press" and it reminds me of screen printed fabric. The words "I love us" were written with dimensional paint, and then a sheet of paper was laid over the wet paint and "pressed" gently with fingers, then peeled away to reveal an interesting effect. The heart and arrow was painted with a brush, which is why it looks so different. Intrigued? Well, read along my friends and see how to do it if you've never tried it.
Here's how:
The supplies you'll need are a pillow case or cover, ruler, disappearing ink marker, paper, scissors, disposable plate, brush, and dimensional paints in the colors you choose. I chose white, pink and red.
- Trace around a small heart pattern with marker.
- Draw an arrow, using ruler for straight lines.
- Paint heart with red fabric paint.
- Paint arrow with white paint.
- Squeeze black dimensional paint above heart and arrow to say, “I love us”. (You might want to draw the words with chalk as a guideline for the script. It can be brushed off after the paint has dried completely.)
- Lay paper over wet paint and gently press with fingers.
- Peel away paper to reveal saying.
- Let dry thoroughly.
- Stuff the pillow with Fairfield Poly-Fil® to complete.