Plaid

Cork boards are awesome because they can be great functional pieces of art. They take on paint really well and serve as a great surface to pin your daily reminders on. Not only will you be on top of everything you have to do, but your office will also look great!

To make this pin board, you’ll need: 4 8 ½” by 11” cork sheets, multi-surface paint, brushes, double sided mounting tape and our cherry branch 11 x 11 stencil.

Step 1: Lay out your four cork sheets side by side so that they form a square. Place your stencil on the top right corner of your square. Angle it so that it looks as if your branch is part of a big cherry blossom tree.

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Step 2: Using brown paint and a stencil brush, begin to paint in the branch. Make sure to use a dry brush technique, this means that you are using a very small amount of paint and applying several layers to make the color more saturated. Use an up and down dabbing motion to paint.

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Step 3: Rinse your brush, or use a different brush to paint your petals white. If you are re-using your previous brush, make sure you dry it really well. Again, use very little paint and an up and down dabbing motion.

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Step 4: We love the colors of cherry blossoms. To simulate that look, we used a dab of pink paint (paint your plate a little bit to get the excess paint off your brush) to tint parts of the petals a pastel pink.

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Step 5: Use the stencil at different angles to paint some flowers and petals falling off the branch.

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Step 6: Once your paint is dry, put a piece of double-sided mounting tape of the back of your cork sheets. Hang them up arranged like you painted them, but allow them to separate a little bit from each other. Snap a picture of your pin board and show us what it looks like in your home or office! @stencil1

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One year ago, I began chatting with Plaid Enterprises about licensing my designs to create a line together. Well, cut to January 2014 and I am psyched to announce my new Stencil1 Plaid-FolkArt stencil line! These new designs are so bold and graphic, and many are designed as multi-layered. I demo’d this process in my booth at CHA (Craft and Hobby Association tradeshow). Oh my booth that the Plaid peeps totally customized Stencil1 style – built a reclaimed wood and plumbers pipe table, hand jig-sawed some Stencil1 patterns and birds for more DIY décor, my booth just stated what I am all about- old meets new, industrial chic.

So, I met the greatest people all day and it seemed to me that everyone really enjoyed the layering process. Here’s some pics of the happy crafters:

I shared the Plaid booth with the amazing Cathie & Steve and their new Mod Podge products. They introduced the world to the deco den trend and scored some design awards for their MOD MELTER. Inspiring!

Also to my side, was Candie Cooper, showing the gals how to make some on-point jewelry. Look at this pic I took of Candie’s handmade talents:

Then, Pinterest genius and ball of energy Rachel Faucett of HANDMADE CHARLOTTE was demo’ing her new stencil line on silk scarves. This release she focused on world culture influence, pattern, beautiful stuff! She also has these cutesy wood stitchables I need to get my hands on. Oh and some highly usable sticky backed stencils for stenciling rounded surfaces like glasses, clay pots, and other not so flat surfaces!

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I was visited my NY gal Erica Domesek of PS I Made This and we reminisced. Also got a hug from the genuine, and ever knit-savy Vickie Howell. I wish I had a pic of her loose yarn necklace, I’ll bug her for a shot of it.

I met store buyers, shop owners, crafters, locals, and travelers and had such a great time hearing each person’s connection to the industry. Some even called me Big Daddy, those in the know of the legendary Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. At night, I got to see some good old friends of whom have supported me for years including craft wife Jaderbomb and ever generous and supportive Jen Perkins as well as meeting new one’s – artists, crafters, business owners, and bloggers – all so excited to talk shop. We are all so fortunate to work in a creative field!

CHA was such a success and you will soon see the line out in major art and craft supply stores as well as on Stencil1.com To think of my designs reaching more people is very humbling, I hope you enjoy !

One of my favorite techniques is layering. I love to layer iconic imagery over a pattern. In this case, I am making art that is a two layer stencil of a deer over a pattern. Sort of a city-meets-country feel to it!

I started by painting my board a neutral color.

I then mixed a little grey paint with the base color to slightly darken it for my pattern layer. I stenciled my quatrefoil pattern on top of the solid painted board. This stencil is designed to repeat like wallpaper so I moved it around to fill the board with the pattern.

Once dry, it was time for the silhouette layer of the Antlered Deer. I love this guy, he’s so confident. Anyway, I wanted to use some pop colors – bright yellow as the base. It took three coats to cover the pattern.

Once dry, I stenciled the deer detail layer in a deep blue. For detailed stencils, always go light with your paint, stenciling is a dry brush technique. I can’t say that enough.

And there you have your modern piece of art.

The Folk Art crackle medium for me, is like finding the holy grail. I just love an aged finish. I find such inspiration in urban landscape and decay and with this stuff, I can re-create that worn, weathered look.

Here’s how I did it – First, I painted a wood board dark brown and let it dry. Then I coated the brown painted board with the crackle medium and let that dry. Next, I painted over the board again with a light cream color.

Immediately, I saw the paint bubbling and spreading apart.

I LOVE the results and decided my typewriter stencil would be appropriate for this worn looking surface. I stenciled the typewriter design in a very dark blue, nearly black paint.

I then found a nice home for it on my shelves with my books!

Chalkboards are so trending right now, I see chalkboard projects everywhere. I wanted to do some layering effects on the board and make it useful too. Also, I am a list person and creating this board will save me paper!
Here’s how I made my To Do board:

First I took a wood art board and poked two holes in it so later I could string it with twine to hang.

I then painted the board with Chalkboard paint. I used traditional black. I painted two coats.

Once that dried I stenciled the words “to do” on the board using my Corsiva alphabet stencil.

I wanted my to do board to be fun so I used my birds on wires to add these little guys and the lines function as areas to write. I stenciled using very little white paint to make it look like chalk but not be erasable. Once that was dry, I conditioned the board with some chalk. You have to rub chalk all over the board then erase it. Otherwise, when you write on your board, it may show permanently what you wrote.

I then strung some twine to hang the board. Hung, chalk ready, and time to write my list!

Pin it up!

CHA 2014 – Next Level!

Layering Image with Pattern

Addicted to CRACKle Medium

Wingtips v2

Chalkboard to-do how-to!