Single Overlay Stencils

With the Holidays fast approaching, I thought it might be fun to explore the use of stenciling on foods. A little research quickly revealed some fun sites and ideas!

Jan Dressler of Dressler Stencil Company, shows us how to stencil on cookies on the DIY network. (Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Jan on Stencil Talk!)

Canadian Living Magazine shows us how to dust a stencil design on the top of a cake.

Some great culinary stencils for cake tops, sides and cookies can be found at Fanciflours.

Inexpensive cookie and cupcake stencils can be found at ShopBakersNook.

And of course, the Queen of All Things Good, Martha Stewart, has a multitude of stenciling ideas for food items on her wonderful site. This one, in particular caught MY eye:

They are called Tuile Leaves and are made using a leaf stencil, formed around a rolling pin to give them the illusion of floating leaves. Too clever!

I had so much fun doing this research that I will bring you a few more such sites over the next few weeks.

Here is a real trash to treasure project. I put this bureau in my yard sale last Summer, selling for a mere $20. Well, there were no takers, so I put it in my garage for a few months until I one day I decided I could really use this in my house after all. A quick few coats of off-white paint and I was ready to stencil away. I chose this allover repeat design, because it was one I already had on hand. I like the allover repeat designs because they are typically one overlay and you can cover a lot of territory quickly. For this particular project, I just used latex interior house paint thinned slightly with water. Repositionable spray adhesive works well for this type of stenciling project. I used a stencil brush, being sure to off load excess paint onto a paper towel before stenciling. A couple coats of polyurethane were added to the top, so I could use it as a bar in my dining room.

A quick, easy way to add some interest to plain walls is to use a simple one overlay design.

This design (#903 Orient Express) by Royal Design Studio, is done using a drop shadow technique. The stencil is first done using a soft black. Once dry, the stencil is repositioned, about 1/4″ up and shifted to the right a bit. The design was then stenciled again, using a metallic brass paint.

I like to spray the back of my stencil with repositionable adhesive, when doing this type of stenciling. It helps to prevent the paint from bleeding under the stencil. Also, remember to always use a very dry stencil brush, off loading your paint on a paper towel before each use.

When you use a single design, single overlay stencil, you have the option to repeat the design however you wish on a wall, such as using it as a border or a random repeat pattern.

This design, another Royal Design Studio stencil, was done using Copper Metallic Palette Art. I believe this product is now marketed under the Faux Effects line and called Palette Deco. Any plaster-like material will work for this method. Once dry, the stencil was repositioned and a black craft paint was sponged over the copper to give it a hammered copper look.