Burlap and Black

I am not much of a “Black Friday” shopper. I hate crowds and there is nothing I want to buy bad enough that could tempt me to get out of bed at some crazy early morning hour to go shopping. Nothing! Even if it was were Free. And that is a powerful word “free” and I kindly say “no thanks, I’ll sit this one out”. Somehow I think there will be bargains enough all through the month of December to satisfy my holiday shopping. With that said, I did stop by the Goodwill this morning (at the civilized hour of 10:00am) after I went to the post office. :) It was a great time to shop. Almost no one was there. They were all out standing in line at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy!

I found a few things that I picked up for cheapness. One of which was this set of 5 black square picture frames for only $4.99. And they already had the picture wire attached on the backs for immediate hanging. I decided to do something with some of my leftover burlap. So I removed the glass inserts and stretched a piced of burlap that I cut out over the piece of foam board I found in the middle of the frame. Then I simply used my stamps and stencils along with some black craft paint and made some mini pictures with them.

I created 3 of them and will wait to do the last two until the new stencils I ordered off of Etsy arrive. I can’t wait to get them and show you the last two after I finish them. So stayed tuned!

A Little Bit of Burlap

This was a fun, quick and easy project. Just the kind I like! I got the idea a few weeks ago from the Shanty 2 Chic blog by Ashley and Whitney. They have the cutest ideas and this was one I wanted to give a try. And it was so quick and easy that I made two!

I started with a stretched canvas and I cut a piece of burlap slightly bigger than the canvas. It needed to be big enough to wrap around to the back of the canvas but not so big that it created too much bulk. Lay your canvas face down on the middle of the piece burlap. I pulled and staple the top and bottom and then did the sides. You will need a upholstery/heavy duty stapler for this job. Check every now and then to make sure it looks fairly even on the front.

I folded over the edges as I stapled them for a cleaner look on the back.

Next was the fun part. I used blue painter’s tape to tape down the stencil on the front of the burlap covered canvas. Then I took a stencil brush and some black acrylic craft paint. Make sure you do not have too much paint on the brush. You do not want globs or extra paint to seep under the stencil. I used my fingers to keep the stencil flat against the burlap as I was applying the paint. I tried not to pounce so I wouldn’t stretch out the canvas and instead rubbed it on in circular motion to get nice coverage. I did the center stencil first. Then applied the border in the same way.

And here they are! I loved how they turned out and now I am brave enough to try again on a larger scale.