We talked about Hostess Gifts yesterday and I mentioned we aren’t hosting a party at Sugarplum Casa this year. But we still have friends, neighbors and family that drop by to say ‘Merry Christmas’ (and hopefully bring cookies!) So I like to make sure the Guest Bathroom is festive and inviting in case it’s needed.
Fortunately, I gave the Guest Bath a makeover this summer, so all it required was some Christmas cheer! I took this as an opportunity to get my craft on….Stenciled Hand Towels!
I’ve never actually stenciled anything successfully before, so I figured I’d better keep it simple. I chose a really flat, tightly-woven fabric, and an adhesive stencil. These napkins from Target seemed like a good size, and at $3, I wasn’t taking too big of a risk.
I’ve been going to town with hem-tape lately (here and here), so I thought I’d use Fabri-Tac this time. Wowza was that easy!
1) Measure and cut 2 pieces of ribbon and decide how you want them positioned. I found it easier to apply the glue directly to the ribbon instead of the towel.
2) Fold the excess around to the back and glue in place.
3) When applying ribbon to the second towel, lay the first one next to it so you get consistent spacing.
For the stencil I needed fabric paint. And while I don’t own any fabric paint, I own quite a bit of acrylic paint (which will stick to fabric, but dries really hard and cracks easily). Thanks to the wonders of Google, I found Textile Medium, which transforms acrylic paint into washable fabric paint. It’s about $6 at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, but now I’m able to use any of my acrylic paints on fabric!
You mix 1 part Medium to 2 parts paint. We decided to test it out on an old bed sheet first (especially since I only had two towels for the project!)
It went on easily and dried smooth and pliable. So it was time to apply our tree to the hand towels.
1) Position the stencil carefully, then press down all the edges insuring no paint will seep through.
2) I used a flat, angled brush to fill in the paint.
3) I figured painting stripes looks better when you pull the painters tape off immediately, so I went with the same philosophy in stenciling.
The kids then used Q-Tips to dab on paint for the ornaments. Following the directions on the Fabric Medium, I used an iron (once the paint was dry) to heat set.
Everyone was pretty happy with how they turned out….and you can’t beat a 30-minute project!
Sure you can buy Holiday hand towels just about anywhere, but isn’t it always more fun to make your own stuff?! We have five of these mini-trees around the house, and each follows the theme of our Christmas tree this year, with a snowflake topper.
And speaking of Hostess Gifts, these would be pretty cute to give. Or you could stencil a monogram (a la Martha) for a personalized gift.
