I love doggy inspired decor as you can see in this post and this post. You can never have enough dog inspired pieces in your home, so I recently came up with this DIY that turned out so good! If I do say so myself. I always browse the clearance aisle at Marshall’s and I had spotted these faux leather silver and gold place mats for a few visits. I had an idea in my head to create old fashioned silhouette portraits of the dogs with them and decided to go for it! The place mats were beyond bargain priced at $2 a piece, so what was the worst that could happen? I already had some crafting paint and all the other supplies. The hardest part was making the stencils.
I created 2 different Labrador pose stencils on my computer. I found the clip art images through a Google search, opened them in Photoshop and created an outline that I was able to print out sized to the piece of paper. That was the biggest I could get them and I thought it was a pretty decent scale with the place mats.
I used a ball point pen to trace the outline. Since the place mats are a leathery material this made an indent that I could then trace over better when I lifted up the paper. You could also cut out the doggies and outline them on the placemat that way, but I was too lazy to do that!
Once you have your beautiful outlines completed, I recommend doing a basecoat before the final color. I had some gesso lying around from an old painting class, so I used that. Once that was done it was a lot easier to paint the black over that. I did two coats of black to make sure it was really solid. You could do a fun color too! Black and silver happen to match my decor really well, but this would be fun in a neon or a contrasting metallic.
As you can see I put these over a bookcase in my office. I have a lot of other black/white/silver accessories, so I think it all ties together really well. If you’re wondering how I hung these on the wall, 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips. You can find instructions on how to use these on their website. These place mats are super light, so I only needed one strip per mat.
Ahhh these are so cute. I might just have to try this. Awesome idea!
Golden LOVE! I’ve done this as a frame but what a great idea on a placemat. Golden Thanks for sharing. Golden Woofs
Hello! I popped over from Kol’s Notes to see your project. It is fabulous! Thanks so much and I will be back. ☺
Thanks for visiting!
These are really cute! I think I could handle this ;). And gotta love Marshalls!
Thanks Sarah! This is totally do-able for any skill level. You just need a steady hand… sometimes that can be hard with two labs nudging my elbow for attention!