Our project today is to stencil The Baroque Cat and Classic Book Stack designed by Alex Mattsson and cut by The Stencil Library. It is another offering from the collaboration between Crown Paint and the students of the Royal College of Art.
You will need water based paint. Matt emulsion from Crown should be perfect. This paint can be applied with stencil brushes, spray paint or foam paint rollers or mushrooms.
3M Spray Mount repositioning adhesive is recommended to hold this stencil design to a vertical surface as this particular design is floppy. In addition, low tack tape may be needed as this stencil is heavy.
Firstly apply a light layer of Spraymount to the back of the large area of stencil film that has been cut from the middle of the books stencil.
Press it into position on your wall and then fit stencil overlay number 1around it. This is to stop Layer No. 1 from warping as you try to position it.
Remove the inner piece carefully so that it leaves layer no. 1 in position.

If using a roller, take the paint from the roller tray onto a five inch (approx) foam roller then work off the excess paint onto scrap paper or hardboard. The remaining paint on your roller should only be moist, not wet. Starting from the sides of the stencil, roller the paint towards the centre of the shape rather than pushing paint against the edges.
Fill the shape with a light even layer of paint.
Build up colour depth with layers rather than overloading with paint. Before removing overlay no. 1, mark the registration points given near the corners of the stencil. You can stick tape on the wall under the registration diamonds and mark them if preferred. See the tape on the wall? All subsequent overlays will now match up with these marks.
Remove overlay 1.
Apply a light layer of Spraymount to overlay No. 2. Match up the registration diamonds then press into position. Colours can be used on this layer if wished. Our pictures show red and gold being applied with large stencil brushes. A brush is needed for each colour.
After stencilling this overlay, remove it and position overlay three by matching up the registration diamonds again.
Stencil overlay 3 with the same colour that was used on layer 1.
Admire handiwork and take a well earned coffee break or start another bookstack.
Our header photograph shows an oversized cat stencil with the giant books. The cat 'how to' is coming soon. To order stencils or see more of the Crown RCA designs visit here.
Helen