"Special Dates" Painted Pillow

I've been wanting to revamp/update/freshen up the throw pillows on the couch for awhile. I think I'm finally happy with what I have, especially the newest addition which I worked on yesterday and today. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

These "old world map" pillows have sat on our couch since we first got married. Kane really liked this fabric and I liked them fine too, but after almost 8 years I was really ready for a change!

This fabric was a hand me down from my mother in law's scrap fabric stash (total cost to me, $0). I liked it because it was neutral and light. I simply sewed a basic "sham" pillow case I could easily slip the old pillow inside. Here is the back of the sham.

Here is the front. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to "liven it up", so I looked on Pinterest for some ideas. I saw that people had painted on fabric before, so once I got the idea that I could paint on the fabric, my creative juices started flowing. My mother in law had also mentioned stencils, but I just didn't know what I would stencil.

I finally decided to implement another Pinterest idea I had seen where people printed out "special dates" and framed it as art on wall. I decided to put our "special dates" on the pillow instead. Step 1: I laid out my sham flat on the table. I might also want to put a layer of paper behind the fabric you will be painting on. I taped the edges down so the fabric wouldn't "scoot" around while I was trying to paint.

I bought my stencils for really cheap at Home Depot. I had looked for stencils at Michael's but they didn't have the size/font combination I was looking for. Home Depot only had one option, but it was exactly what I was looking for. (Stencils are 3" tall and my pillow is about 22" tall). I liked the more "industrial" looking font. All the ones at Michale's were too frilly/pretty. These stencils gave me exactly the look I was going for.

I used random numbers to map out my spacing/measurements. It really helped that almost all of the numbers were on cards the exact same height and width as the others. That made the spacing really easy.

First date done. I worked from the left to right, from the top row down. The first date by the way is the date of our "first date".

Mid effort. Coming along well. I used regular (cheap) acrylic paint I already had on hand and a regular paintbrush with fairly short/small bristles.

Lastly, I free-handed a little heart in the center (which happens to be in the middle of our anniversary date).

All my updated throw pillows (all except the maroon one---already had it).

The "special" dates I used were. First Date, Date we got engaged, anniversary/wedding, birthdate of baby #1 and birthdate of baby #2. 

I also read somewhere that it is good to iron the backside of the fabric you painted once it is completely dry and this will help "set" the paint.