Stamped Dish Towels

We are a family a five now! Hurray! While we get accustomed to our new normal, I’ve invited a few of my talented friends to share a post with you. I am so thankful for their help and excited to share their work. Up today is Carla from Small + Friendly!

Hi! I’m Carla of Small + Friendly where I blog about my attempt at a handmade life, one adventure at a time. A huge congrats to Amy and her adorable family. I hope she is soaking up all that new baby joy, it makes my ovaries ache just thinking of it! I am thrilled to be here on This Heart of Mine sharing my favorite kind of craft: it’s simple, useful, and kids can help create it!

In our family we try to avoid using paper towels, which mean we go through lots and lots of dishtowels. I like the large lint free flour sack style ones the best. I get them for a great price at Target, but all white dish towels can be a bit boring. Luckily, it doesn’t take much to make them look like a million bucks. You can design your very own tea towels with a little fabric paint and some ordinary kitchen items. It’s easy, it’s fun, and the results are beautiful! After this little project my kitchen was instantly cheerier. Anything that can make you smile while drying dishes is a win in my book. And if you can part them, these would make wonderful gifts.

Supplies
– Flour sack style dish towels
– Fabric paint
– Kitchen items that will make cool designs (such as jars, cookie cutters, and berry baskets)

First wash and iron your towels. Then go on a scavenger hunt in your kitchen for things you think might create cool designs. Kids love helping with this part. We ended up with a jar, a ravioli cutter, a whisk, and a berry basket.

Place some paper on a table to protect the surface and then lay one of your towels down, taping the corners so that it is pulled tight and smooth.

Pour some fabric paint onto a paper plate and dip your object into it. Stamp once on a piece of paper to make sure you don’t have too much paint and then stamp your fabric.

This is the fun part, watch your kids light up when they discover the cool shapes they can make! Keep dipping and stamping until you have a pattern you like. If using multiple colors allow the first color to dry before applying the second.

Once dry, heat set your fabric paint with a hot iron. That’s it! Now your ready to dry dishes in style!

Thanks again Amy for having me! If you liked this tutorial I’d love for you to stop by Small + Friendly and say hello!

small + friendly: adventures in modern homemaking
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www.smallfriendly.com