I am not a big fan of paper napkins. The flimsy ones stick to your fingers and the printed patterns are ugly. The thicker ones are too expensive. I am not the perfect environmentalist, but I feel huge guilt when my family burns through a pack of paper napkins. Probably because I have an easy and cheap alternative - cloth napkins! Cloth napkins don't have to be white linen. We use colored bandannas. They wash well, don't need ironing, and hide all the goobers that come with children 10 and under. Each family member has a unique napkin ring. When we are done eating, we put our napkins back in our napkin rings, put the napkins in a basket, and use them again the next time we eat. We can usually get several meals in before needing to wash our napkins.
In celebration of cloth napkins, I am making the family some new napkin rings. Our old ones were rather boring and formal. I think this idea has passed through my brain in the past because I had a set of unfinished wooden napkin rings waiting for my attention. I grabbed the gesso, acrylic paints, paint brushes, and my gloss medium & varnish.
After a coat of gesso, I painted each ring a different bright color and added designs that I knew each family member would like. Once dry, I coated each ring with gloss medium & varnish.
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| Enchanted Mushrooms for Bea. |
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| Happy Hearts for me. |
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| Mr. Fishy for my main man. |
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| The Serpent for Oscar |
I'm thinking that once CraMWO (see "Confessions of a Craft Supply Junky" in December) is over and I can shop at the craft store again, I might buy more of these wooden rings to make for other families in my life. What a fun gift to make a set and package it with a set of casual cloth napkins.
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