Christmas Throw Pillows

I keep entering every Silhouette giveaway I can but I haven't had any luck.  So until someone gets me one for Christmas or my birthday (hint-hint), I'll share with you the method I use to get silhouette-like results on things like canvas tote bags, toss pillows, and even artwork for my daughter's room.  It's the tried and true freezer paper method that I'm sure many of you have already heard of, but I know I have a few friends out there that have asked to see a tutorial on this method.

The first thing I do is choose a font or a graphic image that is not too intricate or curvy because you're going to be cutting it out by hand with an exacto knife.  A classic Bookman or Typography font is good for this.   Once you've chosen your font or image, print it up on the printer in all black so that you can easily see it through the freezer paper.  Here's what you do next:

Once your paint is dry, carefully peel the freezer paper off.  You can do touch-ups if need be with a small little paint brush.  You'd be surprised at how little touch-up you actually have to do though.  I used this tutorial from Design Sponge to make my zippered toss pillows and it was the easiest tutorial I found on the web.
For my Noel pillow it needed a little something-something when I was done so I added some holly leaves free-hand.

 I also made a reindeer head and added a little red nose to turn him into Rudolph

And that's how you add some Christmas cheer the old fashioned way :)  Now let me say that the freezer paper method is not the craft to do when you are in a hurry.  It does take some time to trace and cut, but I find it somewhat therapeutic.  I traced and cut out mine while we were up here in Mammoth for our family vacation. When the kids were doing crafts, I sat there and traced and cut.  Setting aside some time made it much more enjoyable.

 I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial.  I'm linking up to Centsational Girl's Linky Party.  Please stop by and say hi and see all the other fabulous crafters!  Now I'm off to pack for our trek home!