And this floor from Carrie at lovely, etc.
And these great baskets from Kari at Thistlewood Farms
Well, I have a confession to make.....I've never stenciled. Not a thing - never even tried. But, man I want to be one of the cool chicks who can stencil pillows and pumpkins and curtains and anything else that looks like it needs a stencil! And then I found this awesome tutorial from Brooke over at All Things Thrifty ! She's cuttin' through that stuff like butta! I'm thinking "I'm gonna go for it!" So I went and bought me a new toy...
I thought I'd start with something easy like a teeny little canvas sign. I printed out the pattern that I created on Word and went to town. The first go around, I must have used a notebook that was too thick. Bummer. So, of course that mandates a run to the local Walmart to see if they have anything else. I found some "heavy duty sheet protectors" that looked like they would work. Pack of five for a $1.27! Excitedly, I get home just knowing this is going to be my moment!
I think my first warning flag was how darn hot that stencil cutter gets. I'm a terror with a glue gun - always burning every finger on my hand. This little baby is worse! It was smoking! After finally getting the hang of just holding the stupid thing, I started cutting my little stencil out. It was not easy - certainly not as easy as Brooke made it look. It was downright hard. And what do you do about the circle in the middle of an "O" when cutting out a stencil, not to mention, e-r-d-a-b and p! I just told myself I'd worry about that later and kept cutting. After wrangling with a super hot probe on plastic that got gooey immediately, I finally got my stencil cut out. I'm still thinking "well, this will start to look alright when I actually start stenciling" and "I'll just make sure everyone knows I meant to go for the shabby chic look".
I'm still refusing to get discouraged at this point. After all, I'm a smart girl - just need to take my time. Well patience is not one of my best virtues. There was paint globbed everywhere and I SWEAR I was only dabbing! I used a paper towel to get off as much of the paint as I could! I took the stencil off and tried to touch up as much as I could and even went so far as to get some sandpaper to rough things up a little - you know for the shabby chic look.
Well, it just never got any better. I'm not even watermarking that photo! Maybe I just have to admit that I'm not a stencil kinda girl. I thought I started out with something reasonably small! I mean, I needed to learn how to do it so that I could stencil this on to a table I have...
BTW, that awesome graphic came from theThe Graphics Fairy, LLC
How about you? Anybody else out there have a "project gone wrong"? Think I'll go tile something....
Hi Jaye! Thanks for visiting my blog today and your sweet comments on my French Label Goodwill Tray! I wanted to reply to your comment on my blog but I couldn't since it was left with a 'nor reply blogger' email attachment, which means I couldn't reply to you! As a 'no reply blogger' when you leave a comment on a blog that blogger can't reply back to you, but don't worry it's easy to fix this in your Profile Settings. There is a good article to read about how to fix it at Turnstyle Vogue blog here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.turnstylevogue.com/2012/02/replying-to-comments/
Hope that helps you out!
Yes, I love Becca, she is so sweet and funny! I am glad you like my transfer method that doesn't involve a stencil or Silhouette machine....it's old school, simple and easy! Hope you have better luck transfering your graphic, stencilling can be so tricky - I have tried it myself and the paint leaked outside the stencil edges and being picky of course I was disappointed. But using the pencil shading method works so great! Take care and thanks so much for following me and visiting my blog. I think once you get your profile settings fixed, you'll have more interaction and feedback from your comments :)
I really didn't think it was bad at all! I stenciled my first project last week and am hooked...have your figured out how to use those gorgeous graphics from the graphics fairy? I so would love to figure that out...maybe you and I could be in this together?
ReplyDeleteJessica @ Mom 4 Real
A p.s... make a fb page. It's totally worth it, that is how I follow most bloggers, and so do many others. If you need any help, just holla!
ReplyDeleteI have done a FB page but everytime I try to send stuff from my blog over there, it goes to my personal fb page. So frustrating! I need to get one of my kids to help. How sad is that? Thanks for the encouragement on the stencil. I actually saw another blog post and gheez, I've looked at so many of them today that I can't remember where I saw it but she used WAX PAPER to create her stencil then just ironed it lightly on the surface - I think she was doing a pillow. Anyway, it stuck like glue and nothing bled through! I'll try it because I really, really want to stencil some curtains similar to some I saw on the Anthro website for a bazillion bucks!!!
DeleteOkay - see how tired I am??? I saw the wax paper trick ON YOUR BLOG! Gheez, I'm going to bed....
DeleteMaking your own stencil is definitely Major League! I think it turned out great and I love the saying you chose. So you should be Happier than a Bird with a Cute Stenciled Project!
ReplyDeleteHaha, that's funny. It's starting to grow on me and I'll probably attempt another stencil project. And yes, that saying just made me laugh when I saw it! You know there truly is unbridled joy on a bird's face when he finds that french fry!
DeleteI don't consider myself a stencil kind of girl either. We'll have to stick together!!
ReplyDeleteI thought you stenciled all your cute signs!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the shout out! You are such a sweet heart! And for the totally awesome comment about my gallery wall! You put a huge smile on my face with that one! I know you could do a gallery wall- and look forward to seeing what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteBTW-I had the same problemas Heather did, not being able to respond directly to your lovely comment, since you were a "no reply blogger". Don't worry, it is super easy to fix, and will allow people to chat with you better, since they can email you right back!
Okay.....you are the best! I think the sign turned out so cute! Now here is the best tip ever......in the history of ever. Dollar Tree has the cutest letters.....almost the exact size of the stencils you cut out. Next time you could just use those :)
ReplyDeleteblessings,
karianne
Great to know! Maybe I'll paint this baby over - color didn't thrill me anyway - it's actually a very pretty blue and green. And I'm definitely doing baskets like yours! They may be free handed but they'll be numbered!!! Whenever I need my blood pressure or stress to drop, I head over to Thistlewood! It's so darn soothing - even via internet!
DeleteThanks for the Dollar Tree tip!
Ahhhh- A for Effort girl! haha! You are so funny! Thank you so much for linking up at Stinky Link!..it really did turn out cute!
ReplyDeleteJen
NO Jen - it really didn't! Seriously, it's sitting over in the corner right now taunting me! I've since graduated to an overhead projector and/or carbon paper! I should at least paint over the ugliness!!!!!
DeleteYou tried. That's what counts!! I think it turned out okay. Maybe in person it's worse?? Thanks for linking up to the STinky Linky Party!!
ReplyDeleteCame over from the stinky linky party. I just bought stencils and painted on them on cardboard and holy cow...did way worse than this. I guess I'm not meant to be a stenciler either!!! Grrr :).
ReplyDelete