+ DIY: OCTOPUS PILLOW

I've always been in love with homes that have a relaxed beach vibe to them. Now that we are living in Tiburon, it makes me want to incorporate the sea even more into our place. Bringing more beach-like items into the home can be tricky though. You want your home to be inspired by the beach elements without having a beach knick knack on every shelf. You know what I mean? For me at least. Although, I'm finding myself picking up anchor items, coral pieces, etc. lately so I'll need to keep myself in check...

Recently I came across some beautiful octopus pillows.  The colors were off for our place and they were way out of my budget. But...having a DIY mindset I immediately thought- I can make these covers.  And that's what I did.  Here's what I used:

1. Old Cd Case
2. Paint Brush
3. Octopus Stamp
4. White Fabric Paint
5. Navy Acrylic Paint
6. Two Pillow Covers in Blue Smoke from here (they were on sale in the store and I had a coupon on top of that). Of course you could use any pillow cases you had on hand.  Including bright white for a bed.  That would be delicious. 

* I had all the above items except for the paint and pillow covers.

Here is the how to:

1. Place a piece of cardboard in between the fabric on the pillow cover & decide how you want your pattern to look.  I did rows of 3 and 4, alternating the stamp upside down every other stamp.

2. Squeeze a few drops of white paint on the cd case and lightly touch your stamp to the case.

3.  Press the stamp down lightly, but the hold your weight on it, and when you lift up, hold the fabric tight on both sides of the stamp then lift up.  Lifting up towards the ceiling is very important.  

4. Continue the process until you have something you like.

5. Go back with a paintbrush and white paint and fill in any areas that didn't quite get stamped (I didn't want it too perfect though, wanted to keep it organic looking so I left some areas ligher, etc.)

6. Use your paintbrush with the navy paint to draw in the eyes.  

That's it!  Definitely one of my favorite diy projects I've done in a while!

Have a great Father's Day weekend and I'll be back on Monday to recap our 1 year anniversary trip we took last weekend.  This Sunday marks our actual 1 year anniversary!