Looking to a fun way to impress guests at your next dinner party? Need a colorful way to dress up meal time, and a fun project to keep the kiddos entertained? Then this project is for you!!
Start with the cheapest (most boring) cloth napkins you can find, pre-wash and dry (no fabric softener)….
Fill spray bottles with a 50/50 mixture of acrylic paint and water — invite the kids to “spray paint” the napkins outdoors (wear play clothes and shoes for painting).
It’s GREAT colorful messy fun!!!
Note: It helps if Mom or Dad joins in too — I totally couldn’t resist this much fun!
Line dry your colorful masterpieces, and allow to dry completely.
Hose down the grass where you painted (and kiddos, if desired) — good as new.
To color set the fabric, wash by hand in cold water, then dry in the dryer.
Beautiful, colorful, unique conversation pieces for your next get-together!!
They beat the pants off plain ol’ off-white napkins any day, don’t you think??
The colors stay quite vibrant, even after several machine washes — and these napkins are a fun way to make mealtime just a little more special.
Have fun!!
aww love these and I know Sammy would too!! Must fun some cheap napkins to spray paint! 🙂
Dear Valerie,
Totally cosmic, man…
Love,
Mark
That is a wonderful idea! We do NOT buy paper napkins in this house. I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice to switch it up after at least 7 years using the same napkins. I have to check out my Ollies for some cheap ones like you found!
We almost always use cloth napkins too. I think they make mealtime more special!
This technique would work well with older cloth napkins that have stains too — just have the kiddos paint over the stains and voila! Beautiful napkins!!
Oh, I so want to switch to cloth napkins and buy some too. Not worth a trip to Ollies, but I’ll find one somewhere!
I love this! We usually have a tie-dye day every summer where the entire neighborhood comes over. It’s kind of turned into a block party. The problem we have is the amount of water we end up using – there’s a huge waste and the yard turns to mud. This would be a PERFECT alternative!
It is a lot of fun. Though the bottle tend to clog. Even if watered down a lot 🙁
Takes the fun out of it then 🙁
But those we did look great 🙂
We didn’t have any issue w/ clogging the bottles, but maybe we just got lucky? I have noticed that there tends to be a lot of variation in spray bottles and brands of acrylic paint (we used cheap stuff from Wal-Mart). I’m so happy to hear that they turned out so well!!
What an awesome idea! They look amazing.
Very pretty – is the cloth texture still good after they are painted?
Great question!! Yes, one thing I love about using watered down acrylics on fabric is that they don’t leave the fabric all stiff.
THis is GREAT. I love the idea of a spray bottle. Thanks Valerie.
I so love that idea. Definitely something I need to do with K. She loves to paint so this would be a new activity for her! Thanks again Val!
I’ll have to give this a try. How many spray bottles do you have?
This is a gorgeous idea. I know two people who will be glad I popped by your blog today 🙂
I’m thinking bunting for street parties and pillow cases could be done like this. thanks
Are those spray lids that fit on water bottles??
Just curious because those look like old water bottles.