Day 23: Painted Fall Napkins

Hey there! How are you today? Have you ever painted on fabric before? It’s one of my favorite things to paint on and after these napkins, I’m wondering why I don’t do it more often.

We interrupt this blog post for a special announcement . . . .

Voting for the NFL Pro Bowl starts Monday, October 24. That’s tomorrow, folks!

Now, you might be wondering why in the world I’m telling you about the pro bowl. Or even football, for that matter.

Well, it’s because my nephew, Thomas Decoud, plays for the Atlanta Falcons and he totally deserves to go to the Pro Bowl this season. {Not that I’m biased, or anything. But he really is good.}

Ok, so here’s how you can vote: go to NFL Pro Bowl Ballot, click on Defense, click on Free Safeties, then mark the box next to Thomas’ name. You can vote each day too! Of course, I just might post a reminder from time to time.

Possibly.

Any and all votes will be greatly appreciated!

We now return you to the regularly scheduled painting post.

I used basically the same pattern on the napkins as I did on the goblets. It  wasn’t because I wanted a matched set or anything. I was basically lazy and figured I already had all the paint out there so why change it up?

I used Martha Stewart multi surface paint again. How cool is it that the same paint works on both glass and fabric? Now, I did add a little fabric medium to the paint for the napkin because it just flows better.

If you haven’t painted on fabric, it’s best to wash it first – without fabric softener – and make sure you have something underneath it while painting because the paint will bleed.

Oh, by the way, I got these cloth napkins for $2 each at my favorite store. You know, the one that begins with wall and ends with mart.

I marked my design with chalk. I haven’t tried chalking the back of the pattern and transferring it that way. If you have done that, let me know how it worked out. But you could also use dressmaker’s carbon paper if your fabric is dark.

I painted the pumpkin the same way I did the wine glasses, starting on the outer edges and working my way to the middle. This is two coats.

Then I added the wheat stalks and said, Heck, I already got light yellow on my brush, let’s try a little highlighting.

Which looked pretty good, I thought.

Until I decided to add some pearl paint for a little shimmer and pretty much covered up the highlighting. Oh well.

I wanted a couple of leaves just for balance so I painted the leaf skeleton first and then just filled them in.

The chalk lines wipe off with a damp towel. To heat-set the paint, just iron it with a press cloth. Once it’s heat-set, the napkin is washable!

And just in case you don’t use cloth napkins in your house like me (hello? I mean, seriously!) they’re great for little pops of fall here and there.

Not to mention that they go with the wine goblets.