I have seen many DIY projects with stencils on furniture, and very recently, I finally had an opportunity to use them. We were quickly renovating our condo to put on the market and the nursery dresser was showing some wear after removing the drawer safety locks.
I wanted something neutral and geometric to go with the modern style of the dresser. One of my favorite StencilGirl® stencils, is Mary C. Nasser's Geometric Sky stencil. I love the triangles and decided this would be a perfect choice for the drawers.
After removing the safety locks, we sanded down the drawer fronts to create a scuffed up surface to paint onto. This is an important step. I actually had to do it several times in order to get the paint to stick.
I rolled two coats of white acrylic paint onto the drawer fronts and allowed to dry between each coat.
I placed the stencil down and extended the edges so that as I rolled grey paint over the stencil, the edges of the stencil wouldn't show. I decided to apply the paint lightly so the pattern would appear more distressed.
I allowed the paint to dry and then added a lighter layer of white over the grey to tone down the contrast and pull everything together.
I was so thrilled to bring new life into a perfectly good piece of furniture and help it look "new" again.
Hello! My name is Megan Whisner Quinlan. I have been art journaling and book binding for about 20 years. However, I took a 10 year break from paper arts when I had my first 2 children. About 5 years ago, I came back into journaling after some big life changes, including 2 more children. Journaling had always been a part of my life, especially to work things out in life on paper. When I first started out, I really only focused on making books by hand and some basic collage and stamping. I was intimidated by the amazing art journaling artists out there who could create elaborate, mixed media spreads. When I came back to journaling after such a long break, I decided that I was going to really push myself to learn all the techniques I had been too afraid to try. Painting and drawing have really allowed me to find so much joy in my creative process, and I now almost exclusively create mixed media every day. I feel excited to have joined the art journaling community and you can find me on Instagram @Megan_Whisner_Quinlan or on Youtube: Megan Whisner Quinlan.
*stencils from talented new designer, Jennifer Evans
*plus there are NEW "Chipboard Cutouts" available for each of Jennifer's NEW stencils!
Are you ready to rock mixed media home decor?
Here is Jennifer Evans' 10”x20” canvas tutorial in her own words ~ acrylic paint and Bell Flowers stencil and chipboard cutouts.
Step 1: Gesso 10”x20” canvas. If using chipboard add-ons, gesso these as well (this prevents as much buckling once you introduce more water based media into the project). Paint the leaf add-ons green. Paint your background color on the canvas (I used light green).
Step 2: Center the Bellflower stencil on the canvas and sponge or drybrush medium green through the leaf and stem openings. With a pencil, mark where the flower placements will go.
Step 3: To make a more interesting background, I wanted a watercolor effect on the canvas. I reached for my Inktense blocks to achieve this. Create a puddle of water on your palette, then color or rub in some blue Inktense – go ahead and make a muddy mess.
Using broad strokes, brush the blue hue over the canvas, allowing some of the pigment to pool.
For an interesting contrast, layer in an accent color. I used yellow, for luminosity. You could even “spatter” in your highlight color.
Step 4: Select 5 different stencils to transfer pattern to the chipboard Bellflowers. Using a palette knife, push matte gel through your stencils onto each flower, and let dry. Drip alcohol inks over the flower shapes. This is a fun experiment. I tried using a base coat color, then introducing 1 or 2 more colors into the flower by dripping and letting the alcohol ink spread. I was going for jewel tones, so I used purple twilight, sunset orange, sunshine yellow, red and blue. If you don’t like the result of the inks mixing, have a paper towel handy to pull up some of the color – this also creates a neat effect! You will find that the looser, more open stencil designs allow more of a “dripping” tie-dye effect, while the tighter designs allowed the color to find the “nooks and crannies” faster, allowing areas to grasp color and well up a bit.
Step 5: Attach chipboard add-ons to the canvas, placing the leaves and the Bellflowers. I decided to give my piece more of a burst of flowers, so I used the stencil to trace 6 more flowers (using the smallest 2 Bellflowers as templates) I had been studying Delphinium and Gladiolas for a recent sketch, so I must have been inspired by them! I also had gorgeous handmade papers waiting to be used, and this seemed to be the perfect project .
I also roughly cut some circle centers. Secure everything in place with matte gel medium and let dry.
Step 6: If desired, add definition to the flowers by outlining them with Inktense pencil. Any water soluble pencil will do. I chose blue, to bring out the blue/purple flower in the lower right of the canvas.
Using a thin brush and water, liquefy your pencil sketches to make them look more like watercolor.
Step 7: Seal the final canvas with a fixative or spray varnish.
Jennifer Evans paints a lot of botanicals in her own artwork. Flowers and organic plants are the "go to" subject matter for this artist that grew up around her gardening grandmother. Jennifer says: "The shapes of flowers and plants come instinctively to me, without having to use a source to design from; they are embedded in my mind, always with me. This is not true for any other subject matter, where I usually rely on source material."
Discover more about Jennifer on her website:Jennifer Evans
Step into the grove with Chantilly Citrus + 6 more stencils
Fabric maven and artist Terri Stegmiller has designed this set of stencils to work in concert with one another if you, as the decorator of your home, so desires.
The next 3 photos (that are not stencils) are painted cotton duck cloth. Terri says: "I use these for sewing projects like pillow covers and tote bags."
Pictured below is a painted cotton duck table runner Terri stenciled. For a tip on working with cotton duck fabric, check out our June 24 Scoop newsletter.
Still want more? Instructions for Terri's pouf (and several more projects) with previously released home decor stencils are in this StencilGirl Talk post.
Wait!
Three members of StencilGirl's Creative Team have projects to share too!
