Inspired by a Faberge Egg for Easter

An inexpensive, plain, wooden box from IKEA was painted and stencilled to make a low calorie Easter gift inspired by a Faberge Egg.

If you fancy doing something similar ,read on. Take a look at the photos near the end of the post...they may help.

The box was painted with limey green, semi sheen paint. Once dry make a glaze mixed from a tad of dark green acrylic paint and a little acrylic glaze. Use a sponge to apply the coloured glaze in random dabs.

Make an egg shaped stencil or use stencil pack NC8. Apply it to the box with black acrylic paint. Make a template of the same size and shape of the egg. Use card stock or stencil film for this masking template and position it exactly over the stencilled egg. Place the lattice work stencil over the mask covering the entire lid of the box. The design does not have to be lattice, any tiny delicate pattern should work. I used a custom version of BW24 repeat from the Chinese Style collection at The Stencil Library. You must fix the egg template in place so that the pattern does not transfer to the egg shape. The box should now show an empty black egg shape surrounded by two pretty shades of green overlaid with a fab stencil pattern.

I used copper paint. Gold looks pretty with green too. The next stage is to replace the egg stencil and overlay the floral stencil. I used JA47 cherry blossom stencil from The Stencil Library. Whatever your choice make sure that the size and the scale work with the piece. Stencil the flower then remove both flower stencil and egg stencil. The flower design should now be contained within an egg shape surrounded by a pretty lacy pattern.

Originally I made this piece for HGTV but it was in 2002 and the film clip showing you how to do all this has long gone. Here are some pictures from another project that demonstrates the process of stencilling within the egg shape.