Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

10 ways with stencils at House To Home

Warning...Visiting the House to Home web site may fill your head with decorating inspiration and take an afternoon from you without you even missing it.

I discovered many photographs of rooms and projects created with our stencils, which was a lovely surprise.  This photo by James Merril shows CH55 bamboo squares and IN25 Willow Pattern Border stencil.

Staying with the blue and white theme I found our Lovey Dovey and 91 Bluebird stencils in this picture by Tim Young for Country Homes & Interiors. He shot the next photograph of our VN121 lace stencil too.

Despite having subscriptions to many of the titles served by the House to Homeweb site I had not seen most of these pictures. I remember the next photo well. It was many years ago and appeared in Homes and Gardens. The stencil was a custom sized JA138 cherry blossom stencil

It still looks fresh though doesn't it? We had a few orders for oversized stencils of cherry blossom from readers wanting to acheive a similar look. We make all of our stencils to order which makes it easy to accomodate custom sizes. Look how the design grows from the wall over the stencilled headboard.

From bed to bath... 

This photo by James Gardiner shows stencil number DE67 from the Arts and Crafts repeat pattern section of our web site.   I have used the same one on the wall outside of my bathroom at home. Similar colours too.

Photo by Brume

On first glance I thought this photo showed our 350a Roman clock face stencil but I was mistaken it is a wall sticker by Brume.co.uk. Whether stencilling or sticking; a long handed, battery operated clock mechanism will make the clock function.  You could stencil a group of them and show different time zones.

Here is another bathroom related shot featured as a project in Country Homes & Interiors.

The stencil is DE146 from the Arts & Crafts Collection at The Stencil Library.

Photo Crown Paint The stencil of shoes was designed by a student at The Royal College of Art for Crown Paint's Crown Jewels Competition.  You can order them from us.  Additionally we offer shoe stencils from our own designs. Just put shoes into our site search to see the selection.

 

Last but definitely not least is a shot from Living Etc showing our  VN3 Klimtomania stencil from our Vintage Collection. This is a fabulous pattern and looks good on ceilings and floors too.

There are more photos at House To Home that feature Stencil Library designs but I'll save them for another post.

Helen

 

 

Nearly There

The new stencil related venture is almost ready to launch.

Sabina has been stencilling our swing tickets and I have been photographing the products that we have made.  We have nearly got an online shop!

I think we are just days away from launching For Queen and Corgi cool, contemporary products with a vintage vibe. I hope that you will like them.

Helen.

 

How to write a newsletter

In October 2005 I composed the first Stencil Library newsletter... No one ever saw it.  If my effort had resembled the newsletter that Ghost Furniture sends I would have been much, much keener to get it to you.

 
Trawl through the back copies as well as the current edition. Its short, sweet eye candy from Di Overton, the writer of DesignersBlock blog and the creator of Ghost Furniture. My peacock stencil got a mention this month...which was an unexpected surprise.

Helen.

Chippendale & Morris

Artists Michael Chippendale and Helen Morris welcome you to their new venture.

 
The Art Tour 2011 is rapidly approaching and I need to set up a blog/web site to show and sell our paintings.   Visitors to the new Chippendale & Morris blog will be able to view, commission and purchase our artworks.  Chips (husband and the Chippendale half of Chippendale and Morris) has been working for the past couple of months on these four paintings.  They are large canvases. When viewed up close the paintings appear to be an abstract pattern of dots.  When viewed from a distance the dots disappear and become recognisable faces or scenes. I took some 'work in progress' pics.

 
I'll show more soon.

Helen

 

the golden touch

The golden touch is very promising new blog with some lovely arty touches. It is the work of Cat Golden

I have featured Cat on an earlier occasion when she won Domino Magazine's decoration competition.

Her room featured one of our Chinoiserie stencils amongst many other lovely things. She has the most fabulous dressing table, you will see it on the 'about me' section of her blog. She has a good eye for colour and an entertaining way with words.

Anyway, Cat wrote about The Stencil Library in the most glowing of terms and put together a post with pictures that had me totally wanting to visit my own site.    Do take a look, she wrote a much more exciting post about our new site than I did.

Thanks Catherine, your enthusiasm more than compensated for the unpleasant email from someone signing themselves as The Hooper Family.  I'm still not sure whether the complaint was genuine.  I'd have put his comments on this blog for discussion but the language was a tad fruity.

 

Helen.

Our new Stencil Library website

I have been so busy recently trying to meet the publishers deadline for the stencil book that my new website launched quietly, yes even I did not know it had gone live.

 
The web manager has trialled it on stencil-library.co.uk and if successful it will be rolled onto our usual.com address.

The old faithful site is still at stencil-library.com for the moment but please visit the new and hopefully improved one, it is very different and although it is not fully complete yet you can buy from it.  I think the new ordering system is much easier.  Even more stencil collections are featured on this new site.

Yes, the Vintage Range which so many of you have been waiting to see is finally on line.

We have a delicious new collection of special effect paints.  So please visit, explore and hopefully enjoy.  If you have a moment please come back and tell me what you like or dislike about the new site.

Helen.

Drama in the Parlour...yes it's back

Actually I am not talking about dramatic decoration of parlours or any other room.  I'm talking comedy. The Stocksfield Players will be performing Drama in the Parlour...in my living room again. 

Click on poster to enlarge.

It's an entertaining evening built around characters performing a good, old fashioned comedy in the guise of a spoof radio show. It is performed in the parlour at Stocksfield Hall and tea is served in our dining room. Drama in the Parlour has now got a blog and web site You may be able to follow the life and times of the productions, the actors and their characters.

 
The blog, web site and the facebook page are all written by Marie Swan actor,singer and wife of the playwrite Alex Swan. That's her in the blue frock next to me and Alex is on my other side. If you are into unusual theatre pop over and give her your support.  I'll be acting (and singing) in the next production.

Auntie Beryl has to be one of most enjoyable characters that I have ever played and she makes a return to this episode. The guest star will be singer, actor, dancer and writer Margaret Frayne, yep all that talent bundled into one slim package.

Margaret Frayne. If you are near enough to Stocksfield why not book a ticket and see the show? They are available from the Stencil Library and shops in Stocksfield .  Tickets can be bought online using Paypal contact Drama in the Parlour (or me). 

Read what The Journal newspaper and the Hexham Courant wrote about The Stocksfield Players earlier this year.

Helen

Living Etc gives us Lifestyle Etc

The wonderful Living Etc magazine has a new blog called Lifestyle Etc.  The Living Etc team have used  stencils from The Stencil Library many times in their magazine and I hope that they might be inspired to feature us on line too.  Their new blog promises much of the popular format from the magazine pages but delivered daily to our screens.  Then there is still a yummy glossy magazine at the end of the month.

This was Living Etc's interpretation of our Klimtomania stencil featured in March this year.

They showed number stencils from us in June

and  February showed the Crown Paint Antler stencil.

 
The 'things that make us go ah' and 'style steals' sections are there and colour abounds.  Go take a peek.

I think you'll like it.

Helen.

Fancy sheds and a reclaimed home.

The Stencil Library got a very nice mention in Reclaimed Home this week.  Whilst checking it out I found my self lost in the world of 'renovation options for thrifty New Yorkers' and enjoying the humour of it's author. Reclaimed Home is a blog, store and FSBO listing service (I don't know what the last one is).

I laughed out loud several times and not just at their portrait.  I noticed that Reclaimed Home had a link to Shedworking.  'A lifesyle guide for shed workers'  They had also featured Stencil Library and my blog.

Shedworking is another blog that I could spend ages in.

It is full of beautiful, varied and interesting 'sheds' operating as mini homes, workshops and offices.  They appear in trees, on beaches, in gardens and many other places.  Thank you to both blogs, you've been marked for future visits. 

Helen

 

Fabulous blog alert

Yesterday I received an intriguing blog comment, I followed the author link and was rewarded with this.  Thank you David McGrievey for introducing me to your illustrated life, readers you might thank him too.  The illustration, the pictures, the stories...it's all a treat.

Helen

Meet Pink Bow

When I introduce you to new blogs they are usually written by other decorative artists.  PinkBow is an exception.  She describes her blog as 'Musings on... Art, Beauty, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Interior, Literature, Music, Photography, Travel, Vintage' .   The author lives near me. I don't know her.   PinkBow goes to a lot of the same places that I do and recently wrote about them in her city guide to Newcastle. 
I've been working on a similar post, most of her destinations would be in my top twenty so I'll wait for now, read hers in the meantime.   PinkBow is a book and film fiend, our collections of both are similar. We frequent the same stores and share the same favourite cinema.  She definitely shops more than I do, takes a lot more care on her appearance and is a good deal younger than I.  Maybe I used to be like her...something keeps pulling me back to Pink Bow's world and it's a glamorous yet comforting place to be.  It helps that her writing style is short and clear and her photography can be quite beautiful.
She appears to be winning many blog awards so I am not alone in my huge enjoyment of it.  Take a trip to Pink Bow's world and see if you like it there.

Oh, since I wrote this post she has been nominated for a Lovelies award for best fashion blog. Do vote if you like hers best.  There's a category called Design Inspiration...no, I'm not in it.  I shall have to pull my socks up as we Brits say.  All photos in this post by Pinkbow

Helen 

Inspired by decorative friends

Today I'd like to give you a rest from news about me and The Stencil Library and point you in the direction of fabulous blogs in the decorative arts profession.

Lynne Rutter at Ornamentalist

Theresa Cheek at Arts The Answer

Regina Garay at Fauxology

These are just three of the many that inspire me.  All three authors leave regular comments on designinspiration which often means I am visiting their world instead of working or sleeping.  Oh, but what a diversion.  Please come back to me and let me know whether you enjoyed visiting them.

Here is an extra link, it's to Angela Roberts at Spinach Tiger..
..food and decorative arts Mmmmmmm.

Would you like me to introduce you to others?...I have more.

All photos from the respective blog authors.

Helen

Wow! I have become a daily basic

Gosh, when I told you about the Daily Basics yesterday and said they had been interested The Stencil Library I had no idea that THIS would appear in my emaiIs this morning. What a lovely surprise.

---

Stenciling – British Style Posted: 12 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST Are Patterns coming back? Chinoiserie, Chevron, Damasks... Can you afford those wallpapers and fabrics in this economy? Yes you can! Stencil it - the British way.

The short and enjoyable article gives information on why people should stencil and gives both environmental and aesthetic reasons to do so.  They have put a slide show of stencil pictures from our blog.  They have also put a link to the web chat that I did with House To Home recently.  Thank you Daily Basics, I am so glad that I subscribed to you.

Read it here and if you want to subscribe you can do that on the same page.   

The piece that I did with BBC Television due to air tomorrow has been postponed.  It's possibly rescheduled for next Wednesday but I'll let you know.

Helen

Are you getting The Daily Basics?

Did you know that Trader Joe's the funky, healthy food store in the USA is owned by Aldi???? I did not, but that is just one of the interesting things that I have learned in the short while that I've subscribed to The Daily Basics. This morning they taught me how to tweet with twitter. I have not done it but at least I know how.
TDB is very new. I heard about it in an email from editor Cynthia Bogart whose decorative work with print rooms was discussed here on Designinspiration.  It read

'If you were wondering what some of us not-so-busy Magazine Editors were doing, I thought I'd let you know.  Take a look at our new online Magazine designed for that magazine reader in YOU.
Welcome to THE DAILY BASICS  
What is it?      Basically, it's an online editorial magazine - simplified and FREE.
Why is it different?      It is only one page a day - but what a page!
What do we talk about?     Home interiors & architecture,  body works, enrichments, cookery, entertaining  and lifestyle. 
What will it do for you?  For a couple of minutes a day, we will give you a quick, interesting, quirky, fun read which will delight you and make you think.
What is our purpose?     To enrich your life.  Look at us as a clearinghouse of lifestyle information.     If you want to open a restaurant, we'll tell you where to take a course in that.    If you want to join a Vintage Jewelry Club, we'll tell you where they are.    If you want to see new trends in architecture?  We've got it covered plus tons more.  Not only that, every day we have a different book revue from real people in real book clubs (not the publishing houses) as well as the latest in new movies.  
Who are we?   A few national Shelter magazine editors and writers who passionately love what we do and have found an online venue to get you the goodies you love to read about in magazines and a few new things as well.  

Who is our reader?    YOU

• Historically, you LOVE your magazine There is nothing better than getting them in the mail or bringing them home from the grocery store only to devour them over a cup of coffee or plop into bed early to get lost in those glorious pages.

• Life is REALLY busy.  You work, you're a stay-at-home Mom/Dad (even harder!), you are a spouse, a parent, a grandparent, a friend, a housekeeper, a shopper, volunteer.... in other words, you are everything to everyone. 

• You are totally functional on your computer, the least of which you can do is access your email and shop online.  You find yourself on Face book and emailing your friends to keep up. (Have you noticed that the phone doesn't ring as much as it used to?)

• Magazines are online.  Everything is online. But here we go again - who has the TIME to sit and navigate your way through all those sites.  Not you.

You need your magazine fix.  You need your  'YOU'  time even for just a few minutes a day.   Short, sweet and simple.

So take a look around and if you like what you see, we hope you will subscribe and pass it along to your friends as well.  Remember it's free!  Just put in your email address ( nothing more than that) in the upper right corner at SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY BASICS on the site.  You'll get your Daily Basics every morning.  If not, thanks for taking a peek and check back later. We've got BIG plans!  This is just the beginning!
Welcome to The Daily Basics.  All you... every day.
www.thedailybasics.com
Basically - that's it'.


How could you not?
.....and they want to feature our stencils.
Helen

28 Days of stencilling

Throughout February, Carol Leonisio is hosting '28 Days of Stencilling' on Stencil Talk blog.  If you have a photo of a stencil project that inspires you or one of your own work, please send it to Carol at this address:  [email protected].  Mine was featured on day 2.
Helen. 

Domino, inspiring the bloggers

What a lovely surprise.  This morning I had a comment from Taddie Tales on the recent post about our bare trees stencil.  She complimented us on our stencils featured in the latest issue of Domino magazine and did I mind that she had blogged them?  Mind?  Of course not.  I am honoured.  It will take a week before I see an issue of Domino.  I arrive in America next Saturday.  In the meantime, I went immediately to her blog to see what Domino had done with our stencils.....nice job.  Thank you, Domino!  They have used the lower half of our Chinoiserie panel set.  It look like they might be stencilled in shades of grey...oh, take a look at Taddie Tales as she describes it better than me and there are photographs.

Also, Domino featured ten international bloggers.  Sadly for me, I was not one of them, but my friend Di from the wonderful Designers Block was.  She was also interviewed on two other blogs the same day.  They were enjoyable and interesting interviews.  Go visit and follow her links.  I have known her thirty years and still learned new things.  According to the comments it seems many others want to know her too.

Helen

Photograph from Taddie Tales.