I was given some plain medium colored brown napkins, that I really didn’t like.  They’ve been sitting in my napkin drawer for about a year now.  Brown is not one of my favorite colors, but they do go well with Fall.  What to do with them?  I made my own stencil, added some paint & turned them into some Fall napkins.  Once you know how to make a stencil, you can decorate anything.  This would be a good way to change up plain pillows, place-mats, towels or even a plain sweatshirt.

Here’s how I did it and you can too!

The first thing that I did was to look for a pattern or a stencil.  I didn’t have a Fall leaf stencil, so I made my own.  And making a stencil is very easy to do, as long as you have some freezer paper.   I used one of the wooden shaped leaves that I used in my Happy Fall Wall Hanging to make a stencil.  The first thing that I did was to lay the wooden leaf on to the fabric’s corner to see how I liked the size.

Since I liked the way it fit, I put it on some freezer paper, lining up the right size of the paper with the right side of the napkin.  Then I used a pencil to outline the wooden leaf.

Pattern design made.

Since I was going to paint 4 napkins, I pinned 4 pieces of freezer paper together, keeping the patterned paper on the top & lining up the right sides.

The next thing that I did was to get out a cutting board & an Exacto Knife.  You could use a razor blade or some very sharp scissors, but I think I get a cleaner cut with the Exacto Knife.  Then I cut out the pattern.

Remove the cut out part of the freezer paper.  Stencil made!

Remove the pins & press one pattern piece on to the corner of a napkin.  Repeat for all 4 napkins.

Then I got 2 shades of acrylic paint that seemed like Fall colors, and mixed them with Textile medium.  I could have used fabric paint, but I never seem to be able to find the colors I like.  Once the paints are mixed, start to paint in the stencil with the orange, from the outside of the stencil to the fabric.  That way the edges stay sharp.

 

Once the stencil is filled in with the orange, add some of the lighter (gold) paint to the outsides of the stencil.

Then, with a fan brush, add some dark paint by lightly painting from the stencil to the fabric around the leaf, not the stem.

Peel off the stencil paper and set it aside, or hang it to dry.  (I hung them to dry overnight)

When the paint had dried I mixed 2 colors of paint with the paint medium to use to paint the veins on the leaves.

With a thin paint brush, double load the brush with the 2 colors.  Paint in the veins & set aside to dry.  If the veins look too dark, repaint with more of the lighter paint on the brush.

Now the set of napkins that I didn’t like, are napkins that will work with a nice Fall tablescape.

Happy Creating everyone!