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What better way to prepare for Spring than to customize your own pair of sneakers with Stencil1! Take a look at Crafty Lady Abby‘s painted sneakers using Stencil1 stencils! Check out the full tutorial here! The stencils that were used in this project can be found in our Stencil1 store. check out our Asian Mum Curved Petals Stencil, Exotic Mum Pointed Petals Stencil, Mum Stencil, Blossom Stencil, Fern Stencil, and the Butterflies Stencil 3-Pack, 2 layers

Abby did an amazing job turning a plain pair of sneakers into a colorful work of art. She’s well known for her projects that combine the latest trends in fashion with arts and crafts. These are a pair of sneakers that will definitely turn heads for all the right reasons!

Be sure to check out Abby’s blog for her other creative and unique projects for inspiration this Spring season! We want to see your DIY sneakers using our stencils! Snap a picture and share it with us @Stencil!

It’s National Vans Customization Day here at the Stencil1 studio! We want to original style when Spring hits so we purchased some Vans and put our mark on them. See here how we did it so you to can be one of a kind!

Spray low tack spray adhesive on the back of the stencils so they stick to the shoe surface.

Tape off the soles so you only paint the canvas part of the Vans.

We are all taped up and ready to paint!

The stencils we used are the small Mum stencil, the Asian Mum Stencil, the Exotic Mum stencil, and the Moroccan Petals stencil.

The flexible mylar material wraps around the shoes easily…

Lightly fill in the open areas with paint color of your choice.

On another pair we used white fabric paint.

Peel the stencil away carefully and see your work.

Keep applying the stencils, placed to your liking and varying colors if you like.

Here’s shoe #1!

And from the second pair, we add some subtle pattern.

Now, inspired by Japanese textiles, we are adding some white mums to these new blue denim Vans…

We are going with a dry brush technique, very little paint, to get a distressed look.

like this!

Here’s a vocabulary word for you if you don’t know it …wabi-sabi, the term represents Japanese aesthetics …centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. Words to live by here, embrace the imperfections.

No one else has these, isn’t it cool to be original?

The three new pairs of Vans, customized and ready for Me, Lilian and Catherine, the Stencil1 crew!

We hope this inspired you and if you customize your kicks with our stencils please share some images with us @Stencil1

Out with the old and in with the new! Ready to revamp your wardrobe for the warmer months ahead? Try revamping that old shirt of yours with this DIY and turn it into your own personalized work of art.

The materials you will need for this DIY project are painters tape, Spray Adhesive, three colors of paint, a shirt, paint brush, cardboard, and our Penny Farthing Stencil

The first step is to iron your shirt and get rid of any wrinkles that may hinder the stenciling process. After that, place your cardboard inside the shirt to provide a stable surface during stenciling.

Place tape along the bottom of the shirt to create a guideline when moving your stencil. This prevents your design from coming out crooked.

Apply Spray adhesive to the back of the stencil. Now place your stencil wherever you want the design to begin, and choose your first paint color to work with.

Begin stenciling the design onto the shirt!

Once you’re satisfied with the coverage from the paint, slowly peel away the stencil.

Pick your next color to work with, and repeat the process, moving along the tape you had set earlier.

Continue with as many colors as you want, following a pattern or going free style!

As you continue the project, you can either wash your stencil and brush in between each step, or leave the prior paint on the stencil to create a distressed gradient effect.

Once you’re satisfied with the placements of your design, remove the painters tape and voila! Your personalized shirt is ready to wear.

Now that your old shirt is personalized and looking brand new, take it out on a stroll with your bike this Spring! Don’t forget to share your projects with us @Stencil1!

Spring is not too far away! Get ready for the warm weather, bright colors, and beautiful flowers with a new how-to from Stencil1! Freshen up your walls with this lovely frame featuring our new Mum stencils and an inspiring quote to get you through the last few weeks of Winter!

Things you will need: A frame, Stencil1 Sprayers, Stencil1 Small Single Image Stencils, brushes, and paint.

First, stain your frame with a Stencil1 Sprayer. This will give the frame a nice, pigmented finish. Here, we’re using the color, Tan. Brush the ink along the frame until all sides are evenly coated.

Once your frame is dry. Grab your first stencil. Here we are using the Asian Mum stencil. Place the stencil in your desired location on the frame.

With a brush and the paint color of your choice, start painting away using a dry brush method. Dip your brush into your paint, then dab the excess paint on another plate or paper towel to prevent any bleeding underneath the stencil.

Next, grab another stencil. Here, we are using the Exotic Mum stencil, and repeat!

Play around with different stencils and placements. Here, we are using the Mum stencil.

Add more color to your frame by stenciling with different color paints.

Lastly, add a photograph or an inspiring quote to your frame and hang it somewhere really nice so you and everyone can see!

Don’t forget to share your frame with us @Stencil1!

“I would stand in the cluttered closet and my brain would get fuzzy since I didn’t know where to begin,” Ed Roth, owner of Stencil1, recalls. “The business grew but the storage didn’t.” He lists the countless supplies needed on any given work day: paints, brushes, adhesive sprays, tape, stencils of all sizes, work surfaces of all sizes. “Things accumulate, and you have to consciously have a place for all of them. The physical clutter and not being able to find things was affecting productivity, cluttering my mind.”

Ed was having a “Calgon, take me away” moment, except there was no escape. Stencil1’s studio is also his Brooklyn apartment (his warehouse and manufacturing facility are outside this space). “I choose to live and work in the same place to be efficient, to have everything I need in one place. There is no forgetting something at the office in this set-up.”

But because his commute is to the next room, the boundaries between living and working began to be like his brain, fuzzy.

“Aesthetic is important to me,” he says. “Having nice looking items around me, as well as a clean and organized space, allows me to focus on my design work. I think I have some OCD, and I see things as right and wrong sometimes. Wrong being anything out of place or messy. I can’t move ahead easily with work if something is “wrong”.

Luckily, the Container Store swooped in like a fairy godmother to transform his office and walk-in art supply closet. They tidied the detritus, or rather offered the right storage solutions for it, and Stencil 1 got the makeover it needed.

Any kind of change is not without its growing pains. Of having the Container Store and Art Director Amelia Meena of AppleshineNYC come into his space to evaluate what stayed and what went, Ed admits, “It’s not easy. I wanted to control the situation and I wanted it done fast. But that was a great lesson learned. You have to tear it all apart and start over, and it will take longer than you think, but the results will be long-lasting and worth it. I have learned in business to trust people with what they do best and that motto rang clear here. They are experts. They listened to how my workflow happens and implemented the solutions based on that.”

Ed learned not only to open his mind to storage solutions but also to design suggestions. Art Director, Shannan Johnson introduced Ed to Poppin and it’s colorful line of office accessories. “I love the pop of navy in my otherwise neutral office. It adds a nice pop of color that I would not have thought to implement.”

So, the Container Store camped out for a week in Brooklyn, bringing with them their Elfa storage system and countless containers of all kinds to house the clutter. One main issue was filing. “I would not file things because I had an old filing cabinet and two small plastic ones,” Ed says. “Now, I have two nice new Bisley filing cabinets as well as drawers.” Another issue was that his custom desktop had no drawers. “I have a ton of photos, design clippings, and art that I am always sorting through and archiving. I am not a minimalist or essentialist. I collect art and have taken photos since I was 13.”

Ed acknowledges that he’s struggled with placing too much emotional value on objects. “I have learned to let go if it’s of no use to me. I still do this occasionally, but that doesn’t mean I have to hoard.”

Now that it’s finished, what does Ed hope this reset button will bring?

“I think some delusions of organization are complete life happiness” he jokes, “…but seriously, I want to just know where everything is. I have many new projects on the table – new textile and wallpaper developments, new stencils and tools, events, collaborations – and being organized allows me to efficiently juggle all of these projects. Having The Container Store team do this for me is life-changing, I feel a total recharge.”

Ed will post several tips he learned on how to get and stay organized. Stay tuned for more posts to the blog, Periscope, and the Stencil1 Facebook page.

See the full Before and After blog post on The Container Store’s blog Container Stories.

This post was written by Tami Mnoian

Blog

Crafty Lady Abby’s take on Spring Sneakers

Eat, Drink, Love, Bike!

Vans Makeover

Spring Bicycle Shirt

Mum Frame Quote Wall Art

Stencil1 Home Office gets a Container Store Makeover