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It won’t take you long at all to whip these pillows up and toss them onto your sofa, to add a little Christmas cheer to your home.
Joy to the World Hand Stamped PillowÂ
Have you seen these black and white stamped pillows popping up in home decor?
I first came across one last summer at a design center and fell in love. The concept of this pillow is so simple and that’s what makes it beautiful. The color combinations for this pillow are endless…stamp in red, green, silver, or gold…or have your background be a more festive color…really, it’s all up to you! Same goes for what you actually stamp on the pillow.  I had a hard time deciding just what I wanted my pillow to say because there are so many possibilities: Fa,la,la,la,la, Jingle Bells, Merry Christmas, Silent Night, and so on!  Don’t have stamps? Use iron-on vinyl! There are so many possibilities with this pillow. Whatever you decide for your pillow, here are the basic instructions for making your own hand stamped pillow.
Supplies:
Lay out one of your 18 1/2 inch square pieces of fabric. Â Make sure your front and back piece aren’t stacked together as the paint could bleed through. Take your first stamp and using the foam paint brush, carefully paint a small amount onto the stamp. It really takes only a little bit of paint! Take extra care not to have any paint get onto the sides of the stamp and make sure that all the paint is evenly distributed. Â You may even want to take a few test stamps on a scrap of fabric so you know what is a good amount of paint to use.
After the first row of words is stamped, measure down 5 inches and start stamping your next row. Â If you use 3 inch stamps like I did, this will leave 2 inches between each row of words.
After you are done stamping, set the pillow top somewhere out of the way to dry. Â I let my pillow top dry for an hour before I sewed it to the pillow back. Â I wanted to make sure that the top was completely dry before I set it against the other piece of fabric.
When the pillow top is dry, place it right side down against the pillow back (so that right sides are together) and pin them together, leaving an opening at the bottom for your pillow form or fiberfill. Sew around the fabric, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.
Turn your pillow right side out and press the opening towards the inside, 1/4 inch.
Insert the pillow form or fiberfill and hand stitch closed. (Need help with hand stitching?)
That’s it!
Lace Christmas Trees Pillow
These fun little Christmas trees were such a breeze to make! Just like with the hand stamped pillow, there are so many ways you could adjust this pillow to fit your exact needs. Â You could use ribbons instead of lace and stack the ribbons closer together. Â Or if you don’t like the abstract look, you could easily trim the lace down at an angle along each edge, so the trees look more triangular. And star buttons at the top would be a perfect addition!
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Here is what you will need for this project.
Supplies:
Take one of the 10 inch by 20 inch rectangles and lay it out flat in front of you, right side facing up. Grab your 2 different types of lace and cut 3 pieces from each type, into 5 inch long pieces. Stack the lace onto the pillow spacing them 1/2 inch apart horizontally. I stacked my lace together so that I only had to sew across the top of the two pieces once to attach them. Pin the lace into place and sew across using a matching thread color. You will repeat this step with each row of lace.
For your next rows of lace, you will cut it at 4 inches, then 3 inches, and the top row will only be 2 inches. Sew each row on, centered above the previous row.  If you want your trees to be more triangular, I suggest that you lay out all of your rows of lace before sewing them to the pillow and use a ruler and rotary cutter to cut it into a triangular shape. Then attach the lace to the pillow. Center your buttons over your trees and hand stitch them into place.
That’s it!
So simple and done in no time at all!
Now go toss them on your favorite sofa or wrap them up and take them to your friend down the street! They will make the perfect background accent for your holiday decor.
-Sara
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