How-To Tuesday – Painting on Fabric

Even if you’re not an experienced artist, there are some fantastic ways to decorate fabric with paint. Think about all the fabrics in your home – pillows, tablecloths, runners, placemats, curtain panels, to name just a few!

And now that Summer is here, imagine having custom painted fabrics in your outdoor room or patio!


Lemon Tree Creations

This first project isn’t even painted. The clever gals at Lemon Tree Creations showcased some awesome pillows that you could use in any space.



They used iron-on transfers to decorate their pillows. Cool, huh? Although, I’d paint something first, then print it on the transfer. But if you want some great wording, how fun would this be?


just another hand up

Do you have an exacto-knife? And tons of patience? Suzanne @ JustAnotherHangUp cut this damask stencil for this beautiful pillow. Of course, you could buy a stencil and save some time. But if you’re a DIYer, it’s always time vs. money, isn’t it?


Little Lizard King

This was LittleLizardKing’s first project using freezer paper as a stencil. Didn’t they turn out great! She gives some great tips in her tutorial, too.


TheShabbyChicCottage

How about adding a special touch to your curtains? Gina over at The Shabby Chic Cottage posted this great tutorial. Of course, she sewed these curtains – just because she’s multi-talented. Personally, I’d buy some inexpensive readymade panels and give it a whirl.

What’s so cool about these projects is how they used simple images to make sensational items. Love that!
This is a goal of mine, to use stencils or iron-on transfers to decorate fabric. Will save me loads of time because, up to now, I’ve hand painted everything.



Remember this project I painted? It’s a silk wall hanging that I painted with simple acrylic craft paint mixed with Textile medium.

It only took me a day to paint it, which is pretty good, I guess. But if I had painted it on canvas or paper, I could’ve just printed it onto transfer paper in a snap. The I could take the dragonflies, print them onto transfer paper, and decorate some pillows or maybe a runner.

What fabric projects are you working on? Are you doing anything for outdoors?

Colleen