From the golden shimmer of onion skins to the deep aubergine color of cabbage, the colors of our everyday produce are a beautiful nod to our Great Creator. Each fruit and vegetable has been individually created with its own unique shape and texture, and it’s wonderful when we get to embrace His gorgeous design in a new way. This easy and fun DIY celebrates the simple beauty of fruit and, even better, is quite simple in its execution. So, read on to learn the 7 simple steps for fruit stamping tea towels!
SUPPLIES
- Flour Sack Towels (large, inexpensive kitchen towels in neutral colors often sold in multi-packs)
- Acrylic Paint, in your chosen colors
- Textile Medium (Delta Creative Creamcoat is a popular one)
- Stiff Paintbrush (‘chip’ brushes work well for this)
- Smaller Paintbrush, for detailing
- Fruit of Your Choice For Stamping (citrus fruits, apples, pears, peaches, etc.)
- Cutting Board and Paring Knife
- General Supplies: water, paper towel, plastic bag
PROCESS
- Launder your flour sack towels and remove them from the dryer immediately so they don’t wrinkle.
- Prepare the fruit.
CITRUS FRUIT: With your paring knife, cut the fruit in half at the thickest part when the ends indicate that the fruit is upright (a horizontal cut). Using the sharp point of the knife, cut along each triangular segment of the fruit, but be careful to leave the membrane intact. Remove flesh from each segment with the handle of a spoon. (You don’t have to remove every bit of flesh–just enough to keep it from interfering with the shape for stamping.) Once you have completed scooping flesh from all segments, allow the fruit to rest, cut-side down, on a paper towel to absorb some of the excess juice.
APPLES/PEARS/STONE FRUIT: Select fruit with the stem intact. Carefully cut the fruit vertically and leave the stem attached to the half that you will stamp with. Dab the cut piece with a paper towel to reduce the moisture before stamping. (You may need to remove seeds/pits that will interfere with the stamping process.)
Painting and Stamping Tea Towels
- On a protected surface (I use old paper bags from the grocery store), get your paint materials ready. On a paper plate, or palette if you have one, squeeze out the first color and mix it with the textile medium according to the bottle directions. (Textile medium keeps the colors bright on the fabric and softens the texture of the paint to avoid stiffness.)
- Use your stiff paintbrush to apply the paint-and-textile mixture to the prepared fruit surface. Using this method, the fruit will have an even coating of the paint mixture as opposed to pressing the fruit directly onto the paint.
- Press the painted fruit surface onto your towel firmly, stamping tea towels with the fruit. Use your smaller paintbrush to stipple the paint to fill in any odd gaps left by the stamp. Occasionally, the stem doesn’t stamp well, and so the little brush can be used to paint in a stem if desired.
Repeat and Dry
- Repeat this process for each stamp placed in the pattern/design of your choice, reapplying paint in between each press.
Note: If creating these towels as gifts, consider adding their name somewhere or a little message to make them extra personal. - Let your towels dry for at least 72 hours before running them through the washing machine again.
Hang these towels over the handle of the oven door and enjoy the cheer that these DIY fruit-patterned towels bring to your kitchen.
Photos by Loralie Hoffort | @highwoodroad
From the golden shimmer of onion skins to the deep aubergine color of cabbage, the colors of our everyday produce are a beautiful nod to our Great Creator.
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2 comments
I just love everything about this, I look forward to it landing in my mailbox.
Thankyou for bringing joy into my day.
Stamping flour sack towels is a great way to add a personal touch to your kitchen towels. You can use a variety of stamps and inks to create unique designs on your towels.