Painted place mat JOY pillow

$3 place mat from Target

I really want some fun holiday pillows for my couch/chair but all the ones I can find in the stores are tan.  My couch is a gray-ish tan, so tan pillows would love awful.  I have no choice but to make them. For the first one, I wanted red so I picked up this $3 place mat at Target yesterday.  It has really fun sequins lining the top and bottom- perfect for a word pillow.  I used some scrap contact paper to make a stencil and then painted the fabric with Martha Stuart Multi-Surface acrylic in PEARL.  After using this stuff, I want to go buy all the colors!  If you are trying this, I suggest you use something with stick, rather than just paper for your stencil - either scraps of vinyl, or contact paper, or even freezer paper.  Then use a foam brush with a pouncing motion rather that brushing it.  This will keep you lines crisp.  One more tip: I know its hard to be patient while the paint is drying, you will want to strip off your stencil because you can't wait to see the results - don't do it! If the paint on the stencil is wet it can (and will) get on your project where you don't want it to, ALSO, if you are doing a light color on dark, you may want a second coat of paint, and I can tell you now, you are not getting that stencil back on right.  I was too eager and took it off, then had to add paint with a paintbrush.  Next time I will try to be more patient (ha).  So once my paint was dry, I ripped open about 4 inches of the side seam, stitched a button on the snowflake to tie in with the  sequins, stuffed it with filling from an older pillow, then hand stitched the opening closed.  I just love it!  I need 2 more for the couch, but I want them all to be different.  Next I'm trying a PB knock-off, I'll let you know how it goes.

With Stencil

Paint then LET IT DRY