Crafts,  decorating

$2.50 Cloth Napkin Art

Generally speaking, I’m at that point in my life where I can deal with blank walls while I wait for inspiration to strike.

So zen of me, I know.

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The truth is, once I put a hole in the wall, it’s all over. That artwork is going to be up there for a REALLY long time. For some reason, I lack the motivation it takes to spend 10 minutes filling in that hole and repainting in order to hang a new piece of artwork. But, let’s not dwell on my issues.

Now, if I can hide that nail hole…

Please tell me I’m not the only one who has multiple nail holes hiding behind one piece of art. Anyone?? *crickets* Sigh.

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With all that said, I made an exception to my “wait for inspiration” rule. And spoiler alert!!! I like how it turned out.

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I was prepping our guest room for visitors and the walls were all bare. So, on a trip to one of my favorite places, Target, I detoured through the cloth napkin section and found 4 cloth napkins that coordinated with the room’s colors. The 4-pack of napkins was $10. I used two napkins for this project, so $2.50 per each piece of art. The frames were ones that I already had on hand just sitting in the closet waiting for their chance to shine!

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If the napkins had more variation in the pattern, I might have just framed them and called it good. They didn’t…so I decided to print out the words “sleep” and “tight” backward on colored card stock. I used Adobe InDesign to do this, but I read a helpful article about how to flip text in Microsoft Word.

After I printed out the backward or reversed text, I used my craft knife to cut out the letters. When I turned the letters over, they were right side out with no ink showing.

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After that, it was as simple as swiping my kids’ Elmer’s Glue and using a dab of it to secure the letters to their place on the napkin. I needed some way of making sure the letters wouldn’t move when I put the napkin in the frame. I also didn’t want to permanently damage the napkin because I might want to use it for an actual napkin at some point in the future. A girl’s got to keep her options open!

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To keep things really classy, you know, in the spirit of not damaging the napkin, I did not cut the napkin down to size. I simply let it hang out the back of the frame and scotch taped the ends to the back of the frame. You can’t tell once it is hung on the wall, so no harm, no foul!

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So, that’s the story of my $2.50 art. Sometimes breaking my own rules turns out better than I expected and that makes me very happy indeed!

P.S. The little frame on the table holds a card I received from a dear, dear friend. The card says,”there are big ships and there are small ships, but the best ship of all is friendship.” I agree.


I really wish these pictures were better! Oh well. Moving on. Here are some other posts you might enjoy. 

Colorful Wall in a Girl’s Room

Trash to Treasure Art in a Boy’s Room

Trash to Treasure Mirror

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