Ballard Designs Knock Off!

Well y'all.

I spent the better part of my day crafting my heart out.  It didn't start out so well as I had a grand idea to paint a doormat for my front door.  I went to IKEA (loveee that place),got a $5 plain doormat and got home with big plans to write something really cute on it...

Nope. That didn't happen.  It turned out HORRIBLE. I'm embarrassed to even post it, so guess what? I'm not gonna!

{Cause this is my blog, and I can do what I want!} Hehe

Let's just say that the paint didn't go in the right places and I ended up throwing it in the closet to tackle later...maybe..or maybe not. It may sit there until we move. We will see.


ANYWAY, but what I did accomplish were some C-U-T-E pillows.

I got the idea from looking at the Ballard Designs catalog.  When I saw them, I knew I had to have them...except not for $59 a piece. NO WAY JOSE.

I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby (well actually, my trips there are never quick because I go down EVERY aisle) and bought some burlap.  It was only $3.99/yard! I got 1.5 yards but that's because I have another Burlap project in the works...for the pillows it didn't even take a yard.

The project was very easy, just a little time consuming..but I had all the time in the world (hubby is out of town for the weekend) so it didn't bother me!

Here is Ballard Designs version of the pillows that I made:

You can find them here.

Aren't those just delicious? I LOVE burlap..and I love pillows.  So that made me one happy girl.  My husband is always like "Why do we have so many pillows everywhere?"  I just compare the pillows to tennis racquets and say "the more the better"...he understands then.

Now, without further ado...

here is my version:

 OMG-i'm in love.

I chose to do a more "whimsical" font than what Ballard Designs had and I used black paint instead of brown.

What do you think??  Do you like em?

Here's a short tutorial of how I painted the letters on..and if you're like me and don't sew well at all, you can use Liquid Stitch to make the pillows. That stuff is awesome.

So, i cut out a stencil from a regular piece of paper and used a paint pen (pictured above left) to trace the letters.  Then I filled in the rest with paint.  I wanted to make sure my lines were really straight so that's why I used a paint pen first. It worked really well on the Burlap.

After I did that, I just glued the sides together and stuffed my pillow in..and VOILA!

WONDERFUL Personalized "Ballard Designs Knock Off" pillows.

I also have a couple more projects to share that I'm finishing up, so y'all check back soon!!

*UPDATE: I've been getting several questions from y'all about the pillows, so I've decided to post the answers on here!

1. What font did you use? I opened up Microsoft Word on my computer and used the "word art" feature that can be found under the "Insert" tab (I have Microsoft Word 2007). After I opened the "word art" tab, I just typed "Mr." and made it big enough to fill up a whole page on landscape.  

*Just a note: You can make your font as big or small as you want depending on your pillow size.

Then I went back and typed "Mrs." and printed that out on a separate page. 

2. Where did you get the fabric? I got the burlap at Hobby Lobby, but I know that most Hancock's Fabric stores carry it.  I'm not sure about Joann's Fabric but to save you a trip, just call their store beforehand and ask! :)

3. What kind of paint did you use? I just used a regular acrylic paint. I know they make fabric paints for this purpose too but acrylic was all I had on hand, and it worked great!

4. Can this be done with another type of fabric? I'm no fabric expert, but I'm sure it can! Just make sure you test out a little piece first before painting so you'll know for sure.  But I would think that it would be fine to use other fabrics for this project. 

If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask! :)


I'm off- gotta get crafting!

-Kait

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