Heart Stamped Tablecloth
Your girl loves a good craft project. I find it so therapeutic. I also love taking a concept and watching it come to completion. Bonus points if I can include the kiddos. At least I love the idea of including the kids. At the end of or project, I'm usually two drinks deep, cleaning paint off the floor, wonder why I do this to myself. But you get the point…
Tools:
White table cloth (make sure it mostly cotton so the paint will adhere to it.)
Sponges
Sharpie
5 shades of pink paint and white.
Paint brush.
Plastic mat to paint on.
Ruler
Pencil
I love the way things always come back around; when I first started to brainstorm this idea, I was racking my brain about how I could stamp the hearts vs. trying to hand-paint them. My first thought was to dip a cookie cutter into the paint, leave an outline for my heart, and then fill it in. I felt this would still be too much work. That’s when it came to me… let go old school and use a sponge. That’s right, all my 80’s and 90’s babies remember the sponge stamp! So off to the dollar store I went (I know what y’all are thing home girl is back at the dollar store but why pay $2.50 a sponge when I can pay $1!!). I picked up some sponges and used a cookie cutter to trace the shape of the heart onto it and then cut out my shape. I wanted to ombre the heart color, so I measured out how many hearts I would need to make a row across my table cloth.
I went with two hearts in each color and used five colors. I first used a test strip of fabric to measure out my spacing, how much pressure to use on my stamp, and to make sure I was happy with my colors. I poured my paint onto small plates and lined them up in the order I wanted to use them. I ended up adjusting a few colors with some white paint to get it to get the right color. This led me to notice the paint was bleeding through the fabric, so I lined my table with an old outdoor picnic table cloth that I use to craft on. These are other good options for craft mats.
Now it's time for the real deal. I first ironed my fabric to get the deep wrinkles out so it would lay flat. I then placed it on the table (on top of the plastic craft mat). I used a ruler and pencil to map out where my first row of hearts would go. I started with my lightest color and worked towards the darker pinks. After I did my first row, I had a good idea of where to go from there. I did not measure it out anymore and just freehanded my spacing. Also, knowing that the babes were going to help and it would most likely get a little messy (it's about the memories, it's about the memories, I whispered to my OCD self). I would do four rows of 2 and then go back with a paintbrush and fill where the stamp did not fully cover. I also did not want the bubble pocket from the sponge, I wanted my hearts to be solid, so I would fill those in where it was needed.
Once we got started, it went pretty fast. On the very last row, we added the kid's sweet little handprints as their own personal signature. When we were all done, I let it sit overnight to dry. The next day Grace and I set the sweetest little Valentine's Day table you ever did see. I set it with everything in a pretty shade of pink to play off all of the colors in our tablecloth.
The kids love seeing their handy work set out on the table. It's so sweet to see how proud they are of what they made. It will be such a special thing to pull out every year.
Cheers Babes
XOXO
