Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Larger Than Life Designer Blossom

Introducing our new LTL3 Designer Blossom stencil from the Larger than Life range.  I decorated three quite different room sets with it.  Room scheme number one was stencilled over a blue black wall using taupe, sandlewood and  baltic green from the Liquitex paints range.  The orange colour was my own concoction. I have had such fun with this stencil, it takes so little effort to get good results.

Room set number two was stencilled over black textured wallpaper.

I photographed each step to help you get similar results.   This is what the stencil looks like.  There are lines and circles.

Make sure your lines are straight, I am using a plumb line to make sure that they are.

Stencil a pattern of lines.

Then add as many circles as you like, on and around the lines.

Add circles within circles if the fancy takes you.

Add furniture and enjoy.   Helen.

The final shot just got finished, I went really over board with the small circles on this one so it looks more like blossom and less like a pattern. 

I am now looking forward to working with the rest of the designs in this series. Helen

A stencilled wedding no 3

In the early 1980's, before I was a stenciller, I wanted to be a wedding planner.  I don't think there was such a thing then. I had certainly never heard of one.  The business advisors, friends and family that I spoke to said "It won't work, every one wants to plan their own wedding or get their mothers to do it."  I listened and never followed up my idea. Now the wedding planning and styling industry is huge and does not include me!  I do love it when I am asked to help though, as was the case with the lovely Lee & Will.  The setting was a grand country house hotel in January.  Lee wanted the plainess taking from the tables.  The tablescapes were my gift to the newlyweds and there were a lot of tables so my budget was going to rely on imagination.  I bought masses of gold organza and cut a length to drape across every table.  The fabric was stencilled with sprigs of blossom to complement the colours of the bride's flowers. I used Liquitex paints for all the surfaces. The stencil was JA121    Bird and Blossom, without the bird.

  Several IKEA glass plates and bowls were bought to hold candles and flowers.  The intention was to stencil the underside of the glass and then gild it.  My gilding attempts were not my best so I stencilled then sprayed the underside of the glass with gold spray instead.  It blended beautifully with the gold of the organza. The picture shows the stencilling before the gold background was added.  This is something that can be done as a temporary decoration for special occasions, food and paint are separated by glass and the decoration can be scrubbed off afterwards.  I bought a proper church candle to sit on each of the glass plates and stencilled them with the same blossom along with the initials of the bride and goom and the date of the wedding. After firmly attaching the candles to the plates I poured water into them and floated flower heads.    Surrounding the cake were lots of matching small bowls all carrying a single flower head. It sat on top of more gold organza.  This time the stencil was JA47  but I stuck with the same colours.  

My contributuon to the decoration was simple but really added to the beauty of the day.  The hotel asked me if I would be interested in styling for them as part of their wedding package.  You bet!!!

  ...They never called me.

Rachel made a stunning job of the table tops at her sisters wedding, again a combination of stencil and organza was employed.  She mentioned it in her monogram post.   Stencilled monograms are great for a wedding and we get some very challenging ones to create.  When Chips and I got married Rachel stencilled cherry blossom over several England flags and hung them from the sides of the wedding tent at our reception. It only took her a couple of hours and made a world of difference to the setting.  The desert buffet was housed in a stencilled pavilion,  on the day it looked fab but got trashed by a wayward chocolate fountain and lives no more.

On a smaller but no less important scale, we often create stencils for customers invitations and their cakes, I shall look for pictures and customer permission then share them with you another time. Helen.

Larger Than Life Leaves

This is another teaser from our forthcoming Larger Than Life stencil range. I have stencilled it with gold paint onto Horizon wallpaper from Tektura.

Project ingredients to do something similar you will need:
Large stencil brush,  spray repostioning adhesive,  'Leaves Stencil'  from The Larger Than Life Collection (small size), paper towel and a small dish or lid to decant paint.

Spray the back of the stencil with a light, even coat of spray repositoning adhesive.  Position the main twig section of the stencil onto lining paper or spare wallpaper.  This is to give you a trial run with your stencilling technique.  Also, it will allow you to experiment with the branches, twigs and leaves on this stencil and see how they can fit together to form different shapes.  A rehearsal is often a good idea before tackling your wall.   Press the stencil into it's starting position.  Take a small amount of the paint onto a stencil brush then rub the brush in circles onto the kitchen paper.  Rub again on a dry area of the paper until the paint is worked well into the bristles and the tips are damp rather than wet.  It is surprising how little paint is needed.  Pounce or circle it through the holes in the stencil.  The paint should be touch dry immediately.   If blurry edges appear around your stencilling then too little paint was removed at the kitchen paper stage.
Both sides of the stencil can be used.  Leaves and side branches attach to the main stem at intervals built into the design.  This allows the user control of the final size and shape of the project.

I have kept the arrangement fairly sparce in the roomset, but the components are there to keep adding if I should so wish.  The stencil will be online soon (and we will let you know when it is on the site). In the meantime, if you would like to buy one just contact us.

Helen

A blossom stencil on the stairs

Since we have lived in our present home, there are only two areas that we have not yet stencilled.  Of course neither of these areas feature on the tours that we host every month.  Last week, I decided to tackle one of these places.... the previously 'untouched' back stairs.  When we moved in I hung pictures of family and friends around the lower half of the stairway but did not have a ladder tall enough to cover the entire area with them and it never looked complete.   Finally, I have borrowed a tall ladder, had the area stripped, relined and painted then I set about stencilling it with the 'Designer Blossom' stencil from our forthcoming Larger Than Life range.

I twisted and turned the stencil to add variety to the pattern as the design is basically a long spray of blossom.  The stencil is divided into two parts so that the length of the flowers do not become unwieldly.

Once the tall area above the stairs was stencilled I added some stencilled blossom to a silk lampshade that hangs on the upper landing.

Another type of lampshade was created for the lower landing using a metal garland designed by Tord Boontje for Habitat. I cut the garland from it's moorings and wrapped it around the light bulb.   Then I set about stencilling and sewing a door curtain from white cotton velvet.  I used both the large and small version of this stencil on the velvet.  I always adhere fabric to table with a light spray of Spraymount to stop it walking whilst I am stencilling it.  I knew that the curtain would be two and a half times the width of the door so did not need to fill all the whole area with stencilling.  Then, I stoked up a log fire and dusted off my sewing machine to spend an 'interesting' time sewing.  I had not a clue what I was doing and it took all day.  I was helped by Spike the cat, but you can see his contribution at the end of the post if you like.

The curtain was now in place and so was the new vinyl flooring.   This new area area of the house can now be incorporated into the house tours.  We have just posted the 2008 dates.  I hope we may see some of you this year. Helen.

PS. If you want to see Spike the cat helping me to sew, click here.

Giant Hydrangeas

I am getting the bug again to use all the stencils lying around in my studio. I had these oversized hydrangea stencils made in the summer, but I can not remember why.  They are enlarged versions of 141 Hydrangea and before I tidy them away I thought I would stencil them to show you how good our iridescent paint colours can look on a dark wall.   Now I feel that they've been put to good use, I can label them and put them into storage....until I remember what I needed them for in the first place of course. If you are interested in having any of our stencils made larger, just contact us. H.

Re-vamping a silk skirt with a wisteria stencil

The previous post talked about a vintage kimono, hat and gloves that Rachel bought me.  I decorated a skirt to match them and if you would like to see more pictures and read how I did it then click the link below.

A Stencilled Sisal Floor

Earlier this month, we took you on a blog tour of our stencilled, wood panelled drawing room.  I told you I would give you a tutorial on how I decorated the floor.  Well, I have.  To read it click the link below.

A festive table runner & mats

Recently, I showed you how to gild a tea light holder.  I photographed the finished item against a background of a festive table runner and promised to tell you how the runner was made.  So now, I will.  The runner and its matching table mats were made from a fabric called Roc-Lon.  It is made in the USA, it paints well and does not fray.

 

A large pasta plate was used as a template to cut the table mat shape, then I used a smaller dinner plate to make a stencil from to use later. 

We sell circle stencils in many different sizes (have a look at DM20) if you would prefer not to cut your own.

The mats and runner were painted the same colour as my dining room walls.

Both sides of the cloth were painted so that I can stencil a festive design on one side and an every day version on the other. 

For the border that edges the table mats and for the swag decorating the runner, I chose a deep plum colour.  This colour also appears in the stencilling on the dining room floor. 

I drew around a dinner plate onto stencil film then cut it out with a scalpel.  That gave me a circle stencil and a round disk of film.  I used the disc as a stencil mask and placed it centrally over the mat. I then painted from the mask to the edge of the stencil with the plum coloured paint. 

This allowed a contrasting colour to border the mat.

When the border was dry I positioned the stencil that the disc had been cut from. 

This protected the plum border and acted as a mask for the Holly Stencil that I was going to repeat over the green area of the mats.  Finally, using my best handwriting and a gold calligraphy pen, I later wrote excerpts from Christmas carols around the  edge of the mat.  The gold showed well on the plum band.

For the table runner, I cut a long piece of rectangular Roc-Lon which I painted its background colour.  Then I stencilled around the edge of the fabric with our Ivy & Damask border stencil.

I masked the table runner with low tack masking tape as it has straight edges and then applied the Holly Repeat stencil in the centre.

The object of the masks is to stop the stencil design from straying where it should not. 

After I finished stencilling holly on the table runner, I emphasized the centre panel by drawing a coach line with water proof marker pen and a long ruler.

The central panel inside the coach lines was coated with Acrylic Varnish.  I had tipped a little glitter glaze into the varnish, it adds a lovely sparkle in low lit conditions.  Then, I protected the entire runner with un-glittered varnish.  One of the good points about Roc-Lon cloth is that one can cut it into interesting shapes without the edges fraying.  I followed the edges of the Ivy & Damask stencil with my scissors, cutting around the leaf shapes and fabric folds.  I only managed to get two table mats completed so that will be an enjoyable task for the new year.  It will be worth it as the colours work well in the room and the mats and runners will be heatproof and easy to wipe clean.

H.

Stencilled, felt table mats, coasters and Christmas cards

At the end of my last post, you saw a table set stencilled to match my festive tea towels...oh, it's all just too co-ordinated.  Here is how the mats and coasters were made.  Firstly, I used my largest dinner plate as a template and drew around it with crayon onto felt.  Cut the shape with either scalpel or scissors.   I used the snowflake stencil yet again (boy, that snowflake collection is working hard!).  Spray a little repositioning adhesive on the back of your stencil and press it into position.  Take a little colour onto your stencil brush then swirl and scrub the loaded brush onto paper towel or scrap fabric.  This distributes the paint across the bristles.  The paint should be moist rather than wet when transferring it though the holes in your stencil.  Use a different brush for each colour and over lap your design.   If wished, glitter can be added as a final touch.  This needs another stencil brush and is applied straight after the paint whilst the stencil is still in place.   I retrieved the bauble stencil that I had been decorating the tea towels with and stencilled them onto felt scraps so that I could use them as coasters.   I had quite a production line going.   I stencilled some of the coasters on both sides then attached them to folded card with glitter thread.  They made pretty Christmas cards but when I demonstrated them to our visitors on the Christmas House Tour, they were all bought which meant very few of my friends received one. H.

Christmas Stencilled Tea Towel

I have tea towels for drying dishes and tea towels that are there to look good.  These are in the latter category and although they will survive my washing machine (because they were stencilled using acrylic paint), they will not be in it until the holiday is over.  I asked Chips to design a bauble stencil for me with yards of twisty ribbon.  He refused.  What I did get was a lovely bauble stencil, but I have to put in some work to make the lengths of ribbon.  I'll show you how.

Because this stencil is made from separate components, I had a practice run on some paper so that I could see how the ribbon might attach to the bow which in turn attached to the bauble.   When I was happy with the workings of the design it was time to create the tea towels.  After laundering this pair of linen towels, I adhered them to my work surface with a light spraying of repositioning adhesive.  This stops the fabric shifting when working with the stencils.  Before positioning the design I stencilled each bauble onto blank stencil film (card or paper would suffice).  This was to make guards so that I could mask one bauble from another and add dimension to the pattern.  Here I am showing the guard being used to chop the ribbon at the desired place and angle.

I also use the mask to make one bauble appear to hide behind another.  Stencil the forward one and then place the mask over it,  postion the rear bauble and stencil it.  The mask will keep the two elements of design separate.

Now for the ribbon.  By turning the stencil, one can extend the twirling ribbon easily, but I wanted a long straight piece.  This was achieved by placing three long strips of thin tape alongside each other.

I removed the middle strip of tape and stencilled between the two outer pieces.  

I stencilled one of the tea towels with a Christmas greeting and the other with the snowflake stencil.

This was to match the dinner mats that I had made.  Coasters were made with the bauble design so the whole stencilled kitchen ensemble worked together. H.