15009 Farmhouse: Burlap Christmas Pillows

Happy December everyone,

I hope you have all been staying in out of the bad weather… It's supposed to start snowing here pretty soon, and while most adults growl at the weather this time of the year, i secretly love it. I love the mornings that we are expecting to get some snow, I jump out of bed and rush to the front door. There is just something very magical about beautiful white powdery snow. Then a dose of reality hits and i realize that i still have to go to work in it… As it turns out, adults don't get snow days (unless you are a teacher, brilliant profession i must add)… And when you have a huge barn behind your house full of John Deere Tractors you have absolutely no excuse for not getting into work.

Enough about the weather and onto some burlap pillows. I currently have a crazy obsession with burlap. I have done so many burlap projects lately that my house is starting to smell like burlap. I love the fabric, don't get me wrong, but i think that we can all agree that it doesn't have the most pleasant smell. So, at the request of my farmer I have tried to tone down the burlap smells. Then Christmas came and i discovered Red burlap…

I decided to make three little square red pillows and write "Ho Ho Ho" on them. I had just the right spot where I would display them (for at least the next 2 weeks anyways)…

Always lay something in between your burlap, otherwise it will bleed through to the back of your pillow. I learned that the hard way…

I used a stencil. You can free hand, I just wanted more of a uniform look since I had three different pillows and I was writing the same thing on each.

I have found that acrylic paint works the best for me… Especially in the white, it appears to hold its color better. I am not the neatest of painters and you can see…. Somewhere my dad is cringing at this photo… He is just the neatest painter. He has paint brushes he has used for 10 years that look brand new. I guess most every girl thinks their dad is perfect and i am no different. So dad, if you are reading this, i promise i wiped all of that paint off before closing the lid.

Be generous with your paint, the burlap really soaks it up, but surprisingly, it doesn't bleed outside your stencil.

These little foam brushes work the best on burlap… You don't really paint it in a stroke pattern, its more of a blot…

After you are done, let them dry, fill with either a pillow form, or polyfill and finish stitching up.

How great do those red burlap pillows look next to those beautiful green burlap pillows I made last summer. That's my favorite little area of my whole house and the first thing I see when I open my front door.