I received one Paint-a-Pillow Kit from Cutting Edge Stencils in exchange for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

If you are a regular reader of Flourish & Knot, you’ll know that I love to decorate for holidays using creative, DIY touches. This month, I’ve teamed up with 14 other bloggers to bring you the October Create & Share, a craft hop where we each take a particular item and personalize it differently. For October’s Create & Share, we were challenge to create a customized Halloween pillow, generously supplied by Cutting Edge Stencils.

My Paint-a-Pillow Kit arrived on Friday afternoon and I quickly got down to the business of coming up with a design. I knew that I wanted to take the basic crow stencil further, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to put my personal spin on it.

And then it hit me! A literary-themed pillow, incorporating Edgar Allan Poe’s « The Raven »! Perfect for our literature-loving household. I’ll be honest and admit that I had only read « The Raven » once, back in high school, so I had a bit of brushing up to do.

The final stanza of the poem jumped out at me as being the perfect inspiration for my pillow design:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted—nevermore!

So eerie and spooky. Perfect for this time of year!

Once I had decided on the poem, I wanted to evoke that romanticism in my design, so I chose to paint my raven in a misty, ombré style. Here’s how to create your own Poe-etic pillow.

(Oh! And did I mention that there’s a giveaway for some Cutting Edge Stencils swag?? Read on!)

Materials

1 Paint-a-Pillow Kit (includes pillow case and form, stencil frame, stencil, paint, roller, brush, and paint tray)

Crow stencil

Small foam roller

Round, flat-bristle brush

Black and white acrylic paint

Black Sharpie fabric pen

Grey or black braid

Hi-Tak craft glue (or any super-tacky fabric glue)

Directions

The kit comes with detailed and easy-to-follow instructions. Everything arrives ready to paint: the pillow cover and stencil are even already secured in the painting frame! This really is a no-fuss set up.

The directions were very clear in how the paint should be applied: using the roller, I layered on the black paint (which came with the kit) in light, repeated strokes.

To clean up the edges of the stencilled design, the kit provided a round, flat-bristled brush. Throwback to my childhood: I remember my mom stencilling things just like this! She’d dab, dab, dab away… I’m so glad stencilling is back!

Once I had built up the foundation for my design, I got to work creating the ombré effect.

Creating the gradient ombré style was very simple. For this step, I added in my own white acrylic paint. Using the brush, I mixed the black and white paints together in darkening shades of grey and dabbed it on, beginning at the bottom of the stencil. All in all, I really had nothing to worry about: if I didn’t like the way a particular area was looking, I could simply go back and paint over it!

I carefully removed the stencil, washed my brushes and roller, and allowed the design to dry for several hours. Once it was dry, I outlined the raven with the final stanza of the poem – taking a few liberties with the text, for the sake of space – using a Sharpie fabric pen. I was leery about using fabric pens on my pillow, but it turned out perfectly.

It was very helpful that the kit came with a small swatch of the pillow fabric, which allowed me to test out the paint colours and my Sharpie pen. Taping the pillow to the frame made writing on the fabric much easier. I simply turned the whole kit when I needed to change the angle of my writing!

To finish my pillow, I added some grey braid as a frame for the Raven. To do this, I used painters’ tape to tape off the edges (so that the braid would be straight), and glued on the braid with Hi-Tak craft glue. Once the glue had set, I removed the tape and voilà!

I can honestly say that this kit would be the perfect gift for anyone who likes DIY but doesn’t necessarily do a lot of it. I see it working well as a housewarming gift or for a new university student. Who wouldn’t like to have a beautiful new throw pillow for their sofa or dorm room? It would also make a really unique wedding or bridal shower gift, and at $45, it would be a budget-friendly choice.

If you loved these creative stenciled pillows, you can now make your own!

Enter our giveaway for your chance to be 1 of 3 winners of a Cutting Edge Stencil or Paint-a-Pillow kit of your choice valued up to $50! Scroll down for even more chances to win. To enter, use the Rafflecopter link below.

ENTER the Rafflecopter giveaway HERE!

There are plenty of options for stencil designs (they aren’t all Halloween-themed!) to be found on Cutting Edge Stencils’ website. I want to thank CES again for providing me with my Paint-a-Pillow Kit!

Now’s your chance to check out all the other pillow designs from the Create & Share bloggers! Please « hop » around and visit them to see their fabulous creations.

1. Refashionably Late~Paint Your Own Halloween Pillow

2. Domicile 37~DIY Bleached Out Skull Pillow

3. Green With Decor~A DIY Pillow for Fall

4. Tastefully Frugal~Glow In The Dark Spider Piillow

5. Pocket Of Posies.~Painted Pillows

6. Old House to New Home~DIY Painted Pillow with Braided Trim

7. Flourish and Knot~Poe-etic Pillow

8. A Shade Of Teal ~DIY Jack-O-Lantern Pillow

9. Our House Now a Home~Spider Pillow

10. Farmhouse 40~DIY Black Cat Pillow

11. Shabby Grace Blog~DIY Halloween Throw Pillow

12. Uncookie Cutter~Halloween Paint a Pillow