You don’t need to be crafty or creative or have any special skills to print with leaves. You can make a fabulous table runner or tablecloth to add a handmade touch when entertaining, or print onto tea towels or calico bags for gifts. The beauty lies in the shapes and textures of nature and in the perfectly imperfect prints.

If you’ve started thinking about holiday table settings this tablecloth would add a gorgeous festive look to any gathering.

HOW TO PRINT WITH LEAVES ONTO FABRIC

You’ll need:

– Fabric paint or acrylic paint and fabric medium
– Plastic takeaway containers to mix paint in
– Cotton or cotton/linen blend fabric (prewash to remove sizing or coating if necessary)
– Small paint tray
– Small sponge roller
– Paper towel
– Brayer or a rolling pin
– Leaves
– Round stamp – optional
– Plastic drop cloth
– Newspaper
– Iron

GATHER LEAVES

Head out into the garden and look for nicely shaped leaves. I used 3 different sized and shaped leaves to give my design some contrast.

Make sure the leaves are clean and free of spider webs… and spiders! Lay the leaves out on your work surface so you can see how the shapes and sizes will work together.

MIX PAINT COLOURS

Mix up the colours if you need to. I added white to the sage green I bought to make it lighter. If you’re using acrylic paint mix in the fabric medium according to the instructions on the bottle.

START PRINTING

You might like to practice how to print with leaves before using your final piece of fabric. That way you can get a sense of what pressure you need to apply to get a good print from each type of leaf.

Set up your work surfaces. I used a long table for printing the fabric on, and covered it with a plastic drop sheet. A separate area to paint the leaves was covered in newspaper.

Lay the fabric out along the table.

Start with the largest leaf and place it face down on the newspaper. The veins are more prominent on the underside of leaves, so you get more detail if you print that side.

Pour some paint into the tray, and using the sponge roller evenly coat the underside of the leaf. Place the leaf paint side down onto the fabric being careful not to move it. Now take a piece of paper towel and place it on top of the leaf. Roll over it with the brayer once with even pressure. The amount of pressure you need to apply will depend on the thickness of the leaf, the amount of paint used, and the texture of the fabric. But remember that hand printing isn’t meant to look perfect. Beauty is in the imperfections.

Remove the paper towel and carefully peel up the leaf to reveal the leaf print. The same leaf can be used many times, unless it is particularly small or fragile.

Print all of the large leaves first, leaving space between them for the other leaves. To create a random pattern rotate the leaf each time you print it.

Allow the first colour to dry completely before starting the next.

Print the mid sized leaves in a random pattern, with some overlapping each other and the large leaves.

When dry, repeat for the final, small leaves.

I used a kid’s round sponge stamp to add a contrasting colour confetti dots to my design.

Allow the paint to dry completely before ironing the fabric to heat set the paint, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

I left the edges of my table runner frayed and un-hemmed because I wanted a casual modern-rustic look. You can print onto a length of fabric like I did or onto a tablecloth that’s already hemmed.

The post Crafting Nature’s Beauty: A Step-by-Step DIY Guide to Printing Leaves onto Fabric appeared first on A White Wall Life.

Give Big Love or customise your wall hanging with your own words – your Valentine’s pet name, a quirky thing you say to each other, or some other loved-up message. Whatever words you use you’ll have a unique and special gift that’s handmade by you.

MATERIALS

Wool felt in 7 different colours. I used good quality wool felt that I have in my craft stash, but felt that has a peel-off sticky back would make this simple project even easier!

White place mat or tea towel.

A piece of wooden dowel that’s a few centimetres shorter than the place mat.

A length of yarn for hanging.

Double-sided fusible webbing, to adhere the felt (you won’t need this if you’re using sticky back felt). You could also use fabric glue, but it would be tricky to get a nice flat finish.

Scissors, pen, paper.

Iron.

LET’S GET STARTED

1. Draw the letters. If you’re not confident about getting a good shape, the easiest way is to write the letter, then draw around the outside, echoing the shape. Then draw the inside of the letter. Check the size after you’ve done a couple to make sure the words will fit comfortably on your banner.

2. Now trace the letter onto the smooth side of the fusible web. The smooth side will the the under side of the letter, so you will have to trace the letter on back to front. The easiest way is to flip your letter over, and place it on a window with the fusible web on top.

3. Trim the excess fusible web off from around the letter.

4. Now repeat to for all the letters.

5. Choose a colour for each letter and cut a piece of felt that the fusible web will comfortably fit onto.

6. Place the fusible web rough side down on top of the felt and press with the iron.

7. When cool cut the letter out and peel the backing off.

8. Repeat for all the letters.

9. Place the place mat on your ironing board. Starting with the ‘L’ position all of the letters onto the place mat. When you’re happy with the placement cover the letters with a protective cloth (another place mat or tea towel) and press with the iron to activate the adhesive on the fusible web.

10. Add the hanging device. Turn the wall hanging over and cut a slit in the top hem, just wide enough for the dowel to pass through. Be super careful only to cut the back layer of fabric! Repeat at the other end.

If you’re using a tea towel or a place mat without a wide hem you won’t be able to use this method. If that’s the case, try this: just click through to see my tutorial on how to make wall hangings from tea towels.

11. Feed the dowel though the hem channel and tie the ends of a piece of yarn to each end.

12. Save your wall hanging and put it up on Valentines Day for your lover, give it to a friend, or keep it for yourself and display it straight away!

If you’d like to sit and do some meditative stitching it would also look beautiful with small stitches around the sides of each letter. If not, voila, you have a fabulous fabric wall hanging with a fun message and no sewing!

The post Crafting Love’s Embrace: A Step-by-Step Tutorial for Creating a Big Love Fabric Wall Hanging appeared first on A White Wall Life.

Start by deciding on a colour pallet for the event. Consider the colours of your dinnerware, flowers, vases, candle holders and anything else you’ll be using. For this tropical table I chose to paint my runner in cool colours to compliment the bright red, peach, yellow and pink of the summer flowers and layered plates.

MATERIALS

Unbleached calico – it’s very affordable and the perfect weight
Acrylic paint in 3 colours
Textile medium
3 – 4 cm wide paint brush
3 plastic plates, bowls or container lids
A drop sheet or newspaper

LET’S GET STARTED

1. Measure your table and calculate the length and width of the table runner. I like it to hang about 55cm below the table on either end. There’s no need to add a seam allowance because we won’t be sewing seams!

2. Tear the fabric to the correct size. Cut a small nick a couple of centimeters long in the fabric then tear the rest of the way. All four sides of your runner should have a torn and frayed edge.

3. Pre-wash and iron the fabric to remove any finishing agents.

4. Cover your work surface with a drop sheet or newspaper. Because of the size of the runner I found it easiest to work on the floor.

5. Mix your paint. I like to use acrylic paints and add a textile medium, but of course you can use textile paints instead. It’s more economical to use acrylics and you have a wider colour choice. You don’t use a lot of textile medium, so you can mix it with other colours for your next project. A tablecloth perhaps?

I used teal and aqua straight from the tubes and mixed yellow and blue to make green. Add the textile medium according to the product directions.

6. Start by painting the darkest colour first. The key to getting nice looking brush strokes is to apply pressure at the beginning of the stoke, then lift your brush as you move along to create a feathered end. Keep in mind that the effect is to be painterly not perfect!

Place the brush strokes randomly, leaving space between them for the other two colours.

7. Add the second colour, again with random placement. I didn’t allow the green to dry completely before I started painting the teal, so they mix in places where they overlap which adds interest.

8. Finally paint the lightest colour in the spaces and overlapping the other colours.

9. Allow the paint to dry completely before heat setting it according the the textile medium directions. In this case, all I had to do was iron the fabric again.

10. Pull off any long threads from the frayed edges.

11. Throw your finished runner over the table and start creating a beautiful table setting.

Then stand back and admire your work and get ready to field questions from your guests about where you got your gorgeous table runner.

The post Artistry Unveiled: A Step-by-Step Tutorial for Crafting Your Hand-Painted Table Runner appeared first on A White Wall Life.

The rainbow sits atop a soft fluffy cloud with cascading felt raindrops and it will bring texture and softness to a nursery, kid’s room or a play space. I’ve never met a child who doesn’t love a rainbow so this wall hanging would make a beautiful handmade gift.

The idea came to me when I was making my round woven Christmas wreath – if you enjoy making this rainbow for your child give you might like to try round weaving something for yourself next.

MATERIALS FOR YOUR RAINBOW WEAVING

For the rainbow:

2 x metal craft hoops: 30cm and 10cm diameter
White embroidery thread
Yarn in the colours of the rainbow
Darning needle with a large eye
Scissors

For the cloud and raindrops:

6 metres of wool roving
Felt balls
Sewing thread and a needle

LET’S GET STARTED

WEAVE THE RAINBOW

Start by joining the two hoops together, as pictured in the first ‘materials’ image. You’ll find the step by step instructions showing how to do this on my woven round wall hanging tutorial.

Add an additional piece of embroidery thread to horizontally dissect the central circle in half (as shown in the first ‘materials’ image).

Once the hoops are joined and the framework of your rainbow weaving is in place we can start building up the colours.

Cut a length of violet yarn about a metre and a half long and thread it through the darning needle. Tie the tail end to the central hoop where the horizontal dissecting thread joins it. Leave a tail of about 7cm at the back of the weaving.

Start winding the yarn around the hoop until that the top semi circle of the hoop is covered. Refer to the photo below left.

Now start weaving the top semi circle, over and under the embroidery thread ‘spokes’ as you go around. When you get back to the beginning go under the horizontal embroidery thread and weave back in the opposite direction. When you’ve completed the violet stripe leave a tail of about 9cm hanging at the back.

Continue to add each colour, weaving back and forth to create the arch of the rainbow.

Finish by wrapping the outer hoop in red yarn, in the same way that you wrapped the inner hoop in violet yarn. Tie the end to the hoop.

Turn the weaving over and tie the tail ends together in double knots. For example the violet tail will be tied together with the indigo tail next to it. Don’t cut the tails.

WEAVE THE CLOUD

Take a length of wool roving, about a metre long and tie the end to one of the embroidery thread ‘spokes’.

Begin to randomly weave the roving amongst the spokes. Don’t pull it tight – leave loops poking up so it has a fluffy cloud-like texture. Weave in and out and around the spokes, filling up a section at a time.

When you run out of roving leave the end – about 10cm – hanging at the back of the weaving. Add another piece of roving, tying it to a spoke to start it off.

Make sure you cover the bottom ends of the rainbow and fill up the space below the thread that dissects the inner hoop.

When the cloud is full and complete turn the weaving over (photo above) and weave the coloured yarn ends through the roving cloud. Cut off any excess yarn.

Weave the tail ends of the roving into the roving cloud to hide and secure them.

ADD THE RAINDROPS

Lay the felt balls out on the table and arrange them in 5 lines.

Thread a standard needle with sewing thread and tie a knot in the end.

Starting with the centre row of felt balls, thread them onto the needle and thread, pushing the first ball all the way down to the knot.

Space out the felt balls along the thread then tie the end onto the outer hoop with a double knot.

Repeat with the remaining four rows of felt balls.

Hang your rainbow weaving and admire your handiwork.

The post Weaving Wonders: A Creative Craft Tutorial for Crafting Your Own Rainbow Tapestry appeared first on A White Wall Life.

This is a super simple drink, but it has a high impact. It’s sweet, so we served it in champagne glasses. The colors went perfectly with the theme. The different densities of the ingredients create the beautiful ombré effect (my husband said gravity is the better word to use, but I’m sticking with 7th grade science class!). We served this at an evening party, but the grapefruit juice is so refreshing, it would also be perfect at a brunch.

The finishing touch on the drink was rimming the glasses with colored sugar. This is an easy trick that most people don’t think to do at home. All you need is some colored sugar from the baking aisle. You can color your own sugar, but the color and texture won’t be as vibrant. To rim the glasses, use a wet paper towel to go around the rim of the glass, have a few tablespoons of the sugar on a saucer, then place the rim of the glass on the saucer and make a few circular motions. Let the glass dry for a few minutes, and then you’re good to go.

OMBRÉ GRAPEFRUIT COCKTAIL

Ingredients:

• 2 c. grapefruit juice, chilled
• 1 can Sprite or 7Up, chilled
• 1/4 c. simple syrup
• grenadine
• ice

Instructions:

1. Add 1/2 c. grapefruit juice to each glass.
2. Add 2 Tbsp. simple syrup to each glass.
3. Top off each glass with the soda and drop a tsp of grenadine.
4. You can add a stir stick or straw, but don’t stir it until after it’s served or else it will no longer be ombré!

The post Indulge in Citrus Elegance: The Enchanting Allure of the Ombré Grapefruit Cocktail appeared first on A White Wall Life.

These pies only require a package of pre-made pie dough (you can go extra fancy and make your own pie dough, but this is easy and works well), blueberries, and a few pantry staples. Because we didn’t use a bottom crust, these pies cook up in about 25 minutes. We used a pizza roller to to slice 1/4″ strips, and then wove them on the top of 4-Ounce Jelly Jars that were filled with the blueberry filling. You can use a canned pie filling,  but homemade blueberry filling takes about 5 minutes, and it tastes amazing. Since we’re not cooking the pies for a long time, the blueberries retain their shape.

Mini  pies would make a perfect dessert for a picnic, and blueberries are just the thing to make them a Summer staple! We hope you have enjoyed pie week as much as we have. Let us know which pies are your favorites, and if there are any other pies that you’d like to see here.

MINI MASON JAR BLUEBERRY PIES

Ingredients:

• 4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
• 3/4 c. white sugar
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• sanding sugar
• 1 package pre made pie dough

Instructions:

1. Combine blueberries, white sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and flour.
2. Divide the blueberry mixture evenly between six 4oz. Mason Jars. You want to overfill the jars because the mixture will sink a little while it’s baking.
3. Add 1/4 tsp. of butter to every jar.
4. Unroll the pie dough, and using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1/4″ strips.
5. To make the lattice top lay 4 dough strips across the jar, and then weave three strips over and under (just like in elementary school).
6. Brush the lattice with the beaten egg, and then sprinkle with sanding sugar.
7. Bake in a 375º oven for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the dough to make sure it doesn’t get too dark.
8. Let cool and enjoy. If you want to go extra crazy, top the pies with whipped cream or ice cream!

Mini Mason Jar Blueberry Pies

Recipe Type: Dessert

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 6

Mini Mason Jar Blueberry Pies

Ingredients

• 4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
• 3/4 c. white sugar
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 2 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• sanding sugar
• 1 package pre made pie dough

Instructions

1. Combine blueberries, white sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and flour.
2. Divide the blueberry mixture evenly between six 4oz. Mason Jars. You want to overfill the jars because the mixture will sink a little while it’s baking.
3. Add 1/4 tsp. of butter to every jar.
4. Unroll the pie dough, and using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1/4″ strips.
5. To make the lattice top lay 4 dough strips across the jar, and then weave three strips over and under (just like in elementary school).
6. Brush the lattice with the beaten egg, and then sprinkle with sanding sugar.
7. Bake in a 375º oven for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the dough to make sure it doesn’t get too dark.
8. Let cool and enjoy. If you want to go extra crazy, top the pies with whipped cream or ice cream!

The post Tiny Delights: Crafting Mini Mason Jar Blueberry Pies for a Bite-Sized Treat appeared first on A White Wall Life.