Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Happy Christmoose

Okay, it's probably a reindeer antler stencil and not moose antlers at all but I could not find a festive pun for deer. My tableau started with an antler stencil from the CrownPaint/RCA collection at The Stencil Library.

It is stencilled onto fibreboard painted with matt emulsion.

Firstly I placed antlers in the kitchen,
 
Hmmmm quite nice but more useful if I could hang things from it.

Aha much better.  But....I have other stencilled works of art that I want to hang above the cooking range this holiday so I tried it in the dining room.

No one liked it there except for me.

It moved to the panelled room.  That is where we we'll celebrate with the family on Sunday.  Our Christmas day is early this year.

A unanimous decision! We liked the way that the red worked with the black. Baubles were hung from cup hooks on the antlers.

What have I made to display above the cooker in the kitchen?  I'll take a picture and show you.

Festive puns on deer antler stencils anyone.  Here's a dreadful one for UK readers. ANT (ler) & DEC (oration)?  Okay, that was truly hideous..to make up for it I will leave you with this handsome interpretation of the antler stencil by the team at Crown Paint.

Helen.

storage box makeover

I adore rummaging around charity shops. Fine bone china teacups and cakestands are my primary weakness closely followed by furniture.

This blanket box has been sitting in my garage for years just waiting to be useful again.  Last weekend it went to a new home in the city of Newcastle.

I gave it a couple of coats of matt emulsion in the same colour as the wall.  The ornamentation was highlighted with Modern Masters metallic paint.  The box was then set into an alcove which had been decorated with a Larger Than Life Dandelion stencil in the same metallic paint.  The stencilling took less than half an hour but the trunk took me a day to complete. Still, it is being useful again and the matching stencilling has brought personality to the room.

Helen

How to stencil a repeating pattern Gustavian style

This pattern is used in the Gustavian bedroom at The Stencilled Home in Stocksfield.  A method of stencilling that I call random swirling has been used.  Random swirling involves two or more colours which are swirled together in a (yes, you guessed it) random fashion.  It is a fast, effective way of incorporating accent colours into a decorative scheme.  In this case, it saves time differentiating between leaves flowers and ribbons on this design.
Materials needed:
Stencil BW28 , yellow oxide and baltic green paints, 2 large or medium stencil brushes, low tack tape or spray repositioning adhesive, paper towel.
Method:
This stencil joins together to make an allover pattern so make sure that the first one is positioned correctly as the pattern will grow from it. With a clean, dry stencil brush, take a little of the yellow paint from the lid of it's jar.  Work the brush into the paper towel so that the paint is evenly dispersed on the brush and the tips of the bristles are moist, not wet.  To test whether the paint is dry enough, simply stipple the brush lightly onto scrap paper and run your finger over the mark that you have made.  If it smudges, the brush is still too wet to stencil with. Using a circling motion, tickle the brush lightly over the holes in the stencil.  Do this in a random manner leaving plenty of space which then gets filled with the second colour.  The blending and merging of the colours is to be encouraged.

After finishing the first pattern remove the stencil and reposition it by fitting the printed registration pattern over the area that has just been stencilled.

The pattern must be an exact fit before stencilling starts again.  A minor error of judgment at this stage may become a major problem a few metres into the design.  If that does occur, do not panic just edge the pattern back on track a little with each application.  I think the technichal term is 'fudging'. 

The stencil and materials mentioned here are available from The Stencil Library.  This project is adapted from the book The Stencilled Home by Helen Morris.

How To Stencil The Giant Baroque Cat

The Baroque Cat stencil by Alex Mattsson is a single layer stencil.  It is recommended that spray repositioning adhesive is used to hold it in position as this is a floppy stencil.

Remember that both sides of the stencil may be used depending on the direction that you want the cat to face in.  The design can be applied successfully with foam roller, spray paint or a foam mushroom.  I also recommend stencilling with an extra large (size 8) stencil brush (two if more than one colour is to be used).
Firstly apply a light coat of repositioning adhesive to the back of the stencil.  Press it into position.  If using a foam paint roller, make sure that the stencil has adhered well to the surface.

Work away most of the paint from the roller so that it is barely moist before rollering over the design.  If using a brush follow the instruction below.

Take a small amount of paint onto the stencil brush and work it onto paper towel.   When the bristles are moist with paint rather than wet, it can be applied through the stencil.  Use either a light tapping motion or a gentle swirling motion to apply the colour.

Carefully peel away the stencil and place it into it's next position.  The stencil can be bought by mail order from The Stencil Library.

Helen  

How To Stencil The Giant Books

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

Monogram Stencil on a Gift Box

Here is an inexpensive gift idea:

Take a plain wooden box.  Mine came from Ikea.  Paint it, stencil a monogram, varnish it and give it to someone.  The stencil is MS37 from The Stencil Library.  All 26 letters are available and they cost £6.95 each.  Re-use the stencil to decorate shoe bags, stationery, cushion covers...

Helen.

A repeat visit on a repeat pattern

The wall was painted with Prom Night, a deep purple matt paint from Crown Paints. The pattern is stencilled in black using a design called DE82 Repeat No 16 from The Stencil Library.  There is a step by step project showing the creation of this wall it in our how-to stencil section.  In this follow up project, I will replace the purple and black stencil scheme with colour.  This is just to show you a different look with the same design. 

The design repeats in any direction by fitting the printed areas on the stencil directly over the area that you have just stencilled.

I quite like the idea of only colouring part of the wall.....

...but seeing as that was not the object of the excerise, I completed the pattern in colour.  This is a very traditional style of pattern given a non traditional treatment.  What do you think?  Colour or monochrome?

Helen

Staycation day three: The Stencilled Tent

We are staying close to home today.  The weather is kind and I would like to resurrect the stencilled tent in our garden.

 

It had been shoved into an outhouse for the past two years and is badly stained by mold and chocolate (from the last party we had when the wind wreaked havoc with the chocolate fountain).

There are inner and outer walls to the tent.  The inner walls went into the bath tub to soak.

Then they were scrubbed and laid out in the sun to dry. 

The outer walls were smelly and very moldy.   Chips and I hauled them into the bath and although the tent now smells sweet, we could not shift the stains.  Chip's solution was to stencil them with leopard skin pattern.  If we were unable to remove the stains, why not make a feature of them?  We filled plant sprayers with dilute brown paint and some pigment glaze and sprayed drifts of colour onto the damp canvas to make a background for the leopard spot stencil. The picture shows the original tent outer years ago when it was clean.  It is to show you how the tent is constructed.

When dry, I hauled the newly washed cover into position on the tent frame. I found that it had shrunk by at least two feet.  It is tied on to the wood frame for now, but I will need to order waterproof, rot proof canvas and start again. I still like the leopard idea though.

Meanwhile the inner panels (also shrunken) have been staple gunned into position and I am enjoying the tent again.  It is long past its glory days and despite it's stains, it is still a lovely place to be.

The stencils are all from the Ottoman Collection and I chose these colours to mimic Islamic tiles seen at The V&A Museum, London.  I have an outdoor chandelier suspended from the roof support.  It gives a very good light.

When the tent is remade, I am thinking of having inner panels of stencilled lupins and hollyhocks from our Garden Room collection.  Rachel has bought some old canvas chairs and this setting would suit them.  The beauty of the stencilled inner panels means that the interior of the tent can easily be changed.  The canvas is not too expensive and the sewing is fairly simple.  Another of our stencilled tent interiors is shown below.  Goodness knows where I put that one.

Another project this summer will be to clear out the storerooms.

They are probably full of mislaid treasure.

Helen

Chinoiserie romantic style

The brief for this commission was to create a calm, romantic bedroom.  Feminine, but not girly.  I  painted the trim on the furniture and the lampbase with 'warm silver' from Metallics by Modern Masters.  I used the same paint through the stencil on the wall, chair and lampshade.

This is the same spot in lamplight.

The stencilling appears around the room, growing from corners, winding onto upholstery and settling in niches.  I am extending the design in the picture above.  I want to lengthen it horizontally so that I can take a branch of it onto another wall.

In the following picture, you will see the stencil being cut to accomodate a shelf.

See how it fits within the space.

Then I turned my attention to the bedside lamps.

I was rather fond of these lamps.  They did look better though for a few rows of stencilled beads on the shade.  See how the pattern is printed around the edge of the stencils.  That is to ease the repeating of the pattern.

All the soft furnishings were made by Fionda Furnishings in Newcastle.

The French style furniture was bought from The Stencil Library shop in Stocksfield.  The floral stencil was CH12 also from TSL.  I enjoyed putting this room together and hope that it's owners enjoy it too.

Helen.

stencils and tapestry

Are you looking for yet another use for your stencils?  Here is a gift of an idea. Simply stencil your design in colours onto tapestry canvas and fill in the different areas by stiching them with matching colours of tapestry wool.

  This could make an inexpensive but thoughtful gift for someone creative.

  You could stencil the canvas in colours to suit their home, buy the matching wools and display it all beautifully in a decorated box.  All stencils shown above are found in the budget collection from The Stencil Library. Helen.