Halloween Painted Drop-Cloth Pillows

I am just tickled pink with how they turned out. I have to teach a class on saturday about home decorating and I've decided to divide it into three smaller sections of design. In the decorating for Halloween, I wanted something that could be made with some inexpensive items yet is chic and modern, therefore the drop-cloth pillows were born.

I cut four 18 inch squares. These turned into the witch and raven tree pillows (two peices are the front and two peices are the back). I had two rectangular peices left so...I made the "spooky" pillow out of it. It turned out perfect.

The clipart is free online. I found the images I liked although I did add a cat, from a different witch to the witches broomstick that I liked. I then used scissors or exacto knife to cut out the design. It took very little time.

You can see it here all cut out.

I used black acrylic paint. It's just regular craft paint that you can buy anywhere.

I used a sponge brush to dab the paint on the stencil(made from paper). TIP: just make sure you dab straight up and down because you don't want the paint to get pushed underneath your design. So, just keep you brush up and down and the design will have crisp lines.

I added cording but, you could easily just sew the front and back peices together and it would be just as cute.

I always sew the cording to the front side first before I sew them together. This makes my cording look perfect everytime. This is definitly something I learned the hard way a long time ago.

Then sew the back to the front. Be sure to leave an opening for the filler.

Then sew it shut with a needle and thread. I used a whip stitch.

This is the "spooky" pillow.....it turned out great!!

For the tree, I exactoed out the main shape but took a fine tipped paint brush and added all the sticks to the end of the branches. So, this one took a little while longer but, was really simple. There's no wrong way to make a branch.

I am SO glad I added the cat to the broomstick. It looks SO cute!! Well, I should say spooky or something else but, I think it's SO stinkin' cute!

So there you have it. Pillows made from inexpensive drop-cloths and a little paint. Try one!! They are REALLY fun!! You can make one of the edges with velcro and make them the size to go over your existing couch pillows so, you can take them off when the season comes and goes. Either way is SUPER cute!! I just love Halloween!!