Personalized mealtime napkins

The other day while browsing a local thrift store, I came across some white cloth napkins. 

Since a long time I have had the idea to sew our own napkins, one set for each day, each day it's own color, but have not quite gotten to it yet, one of these days though:) Anyways we picked up the napkins, and decided to personalize them using the glue batik method. Very simple and ever so enjoyed by the children. 

Yesterday we drew our pictures on a napkin each, 

I did one for papa, and inspired by Kaleena we all put our name on them, well I did:)
(we used Elmers blue gel glue)

Today following a few hours of yard work we got out the acrylic paints. 

The children just adore painting, no matter what kind of painting, 

it really get their creative juices flowing.

I wet the napkins in cold water before we started. 

Look at those colors

Once they were all painted I laid them to dry in the sun, and once dry I soaked them in hot water to get the glue out, and then rinsed them really well in cold water. The one for papa, had thicker paint, and was not quite dry when I rinsed it, and therefore lost some big patches of paint, so it is important for them to be completely dry before soaking. This is what they looked like after the cold rinse. I felt they still had quite a bit of paint so I put them in the washer after. Once dry and ready to use the color was a bit more faded than what it shows here, and they really look great. We used them at the dinner table tonight, and loved having homemade art work to clean our face and hands with:) Lovely project!

~Have a wonderful day~