Monday, February 18, 2019

Decoupage Owl and Burlap Wreath

3:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me burlap wreath, craft de-stash challenge, decoupage napkins 12 comments

It's that time again for our monthly Craft Room De-Stash Challenge!
Every month a group of bloggers are challenged by C'mon Get Crafty to create a new craft or project from their own stash of goodies!

It's always fun shopping your craft stash to come up with something to make for this challenge - especially when it's cold and dreary outside! I love buying beautiful napkins whenever I see a design that catches my eye - and of course if it has purple in it too! And I've collected a lot of paper napkins over time. But the biggest problem for me is deciding what to make with them! How many different ways can you use napkins in crafts? Most involves decoupage and this time I'm trying to switch it up a bit using burlap, too!

So I gathered all of these from my stash to make a decoupage owl and burlap wreath!

Napkins
Mod Podge/brush
12" & 14" Cardboard circles
Craft knife
White Multi-Surface Acrylic craft paint/pouncher
Fiber-fill polyester stuffing
Tacky glue
Burlap
Floral wire
Dew Drops
Fabri-Tac fabric glue

I love owls and I couldn't resist this napkin in turquoise and purple! But first, we must make a puffy burlap wreath to go along!

Using cardboard circles - you know the kind used for baking displays - cut out a two inch wide 14" circle, or you can cut one out of regular box cardboard instead. Then lay it on top of the burlap and measure a 1" outer circle seam and a 1/2" inner circle seam around cardboard and cut out the burlap.

Next, add tacky glue along wreath facing and place fiber-fill stuffing in strips on top of glue.

Cover wreath completely with fiber-fill.

Then, cut short slits around the burlap circle and lay the fiber-fill wreath form on top. Run short beads of hot glue along the long cardboard edge first and wrap edge of burlap over the cardboard, smoothing sides out. Once the long side is glued, begin on the inside edge. Be sure to push the fiber-fill in while smoothing out as you glue on the burlap for a smooth puffy look!

Next, paint on white multi-surface acrylic paint over the 12" cardboard circle and let dry.

Then tear out decorative floral sections of paper napkins - separating the print from the plain sheets. Place the pattern napkin on the cardboard circle and paint on Mod Podge from the center out - smoothing away any wrinkles.

In hindsight, I didn't leave enough white area for the owl, so I painted over some of the flowers.

Once the paint and decoupage was dry, I cut the owl out and decoupage it on - by painting Mod Podge on it from the center out, all around. If I found any wrinkles, I use my fingers dipped in Mod Podge to smooth them out.

A word of caution, though - this was my first time decoupaging on cardboard and the cardboard absorbed the glue causing it to buckle a bit and not lay flat. So after the decoupage dried, I placed a sheet of parchment paper over it to prevent it from possibly sticking and added another blank cardboard circle on top. Then I weighed it all down overnight with a large board to make the cardboard level again. And that seemed to work!

Once the cardboard was level, I hot glued the burlap wreath to it.

Since the burlap wreath was looking a bit plain, I made a few burlap wire flowers to glue on to the bottom. I made some for another wreath years ago and this time I'm using the same stiff burlap fabric that was left over!

To re-cap on how to make the burlap wire petals, shape the wire around a round object and twist close, cutting off excess wire. Remove wire and shape into a petal by squeezing center onto a oval point. Next, run Fabri-Tac glue around the floral wire petal edge and pressed firmly on the burlap. Then place a heavy book on top and wait a few minutes and they're ready to trim the excess fabric off, just like that!