valentine's day heart punch napkins

Looking for something sweet for the breakfast table? These napkins use a heart hole punch to make a stencil for printing on napkins. The heavy clunk of the metal punch is almost as satisfying as the resulting shower of confetti hearts.

Materials: Napkins (washed, dried and ironed), stencil sheets or Mylar (I used frosted Mylar cut into 4 ½ x 6” sheets), heart hole punch, painter’s tape, textile or screen-printing ink, stencil brush, paper plates, iron.

Step 1: Using the heart hole punch, cut hearts in the stencil sheet. I made three sheets – one for each color I wanted to print.

Step 2: Print the napkins by taping your stencil to the napkin. This gives a buffer for the paint as well as holding it in place. Pour small amount of ink onto a paper plate. Dip your brush into the ink and then remove excess ink by tapping the stencil brush onto plate. Apply ink to stencil using a straight up and down motion. Carefully peel away stencil and move to a new area.

Step 3: Apply a new color by repeating Step 2 after the first color ink is dry to the touch. Repeat with a third color if desired.

To make your ink permanent, follow ink manufacturer’s instruction for “heat-setting” the ink. This means ironing the fabric after it has air dried to make it permanent so you can wash and dry your napkins over and over to repeatedly brighten your table.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring these posts.  I hope everyone gets just the right amount of sweet this Valentine's Day. xoxo

i changed my mind

Well, hours after writing that last post, I crumbled. I rushed into a new-to-me fabric store just before they closed Wednesday night and bought supplies to sew a new tablecloth and 12 napkins.

I couldn’t help it. I liked the napkin rings I posted about, but they just didn’t cut it for me. Of course, I worked up my math on the fly and consequently under-bought fabric. So the overhang on tablecloth was a little short and the napkins were a little petite. But I learned how to miter a corner and wound up thankful for our dining room’s new look – along with many, many other less superficial things that top this year’s grateful list.

Hope your holiday was wonderful.

new washington post project

For this month’s Washington Post column, I created a project you can customize with images of family, friends, or special places for a meaningful holiday table. Simple materials and the sewing is optional. Check it out over here.

 

for your summertime table

I am having a renewed love affair with this set of napkins I made last year from a stack of cheap Ikea dish towels. I love all the variations on the nautical blues and whites, and when you convert dish towels into napkins, half the seams are already done for you. Bonus!

The best part is reaching into our drawer, pulling a couple out, and seeing how jaunty they look with any of our mismatched, patterned plates. The combo really perks up a lunch of gussied-up frozen pizza.