I Love to Create: Fun with Stencil 101 Decor!

I’m a big fan of Ed Roth–and not just because he’s one of the featured designers whose story’s included in my upcoming book, Craft Corps (which incidentally, is now available for pre-order in my shop). His stencils are modern, sleek and often, have a sense of humor about them. I like them so much, I used many from his first book (Stencil 101) to decorate bibs with at my baby shower !

Now Ed’s got a new book/kit out, Stencil 101 Decor, that speaks not only to the stencil enthusiast but also to those of us with a penchant for decorating. With 10 plastic stencils and step-by-step instructions (on painting anything from a wall to a fridge) included, no surface in your house will be safe from Stencil 101’s charms! Dip your toe into D.I.Y. decor first though, by dabbling in wall art that’s perfect in a kids’ room, teen’s dorm or hipster’s loft.

In our house, two very different little boys share one room. What to do to keep a little design synergy without squelching their individual interests? Easy. Start with a basic, coordinating geometric theme, then add a simple graphic symbol that expresses each kids’ interest. Here’s how I used Ed’s stencils to do just that.

Game Boy Wall Art

Materials

Stencil 101 Decor Stencils

16″x20″ Buckram or other Stiff Fabric

Tulip Slick Fabric Paints in Desired Background & Contrasting Colors

Tulip Fabric Markers

Sponge or Stencil Brushes

Foil or Bowl

Fabric Pencil & Eraser

Stencil Wall Art How-To

Lay stencil down on fabric; mark registration points at the given triangles (this will ensure an even pattern repeat.)

Squirt paint onto foil piece–I mixed two colors, black & white, to get the shade of grey I wanted.

Lightly paint (either brushing or pouncing) over stencil. Too much paint on the brush will cause bleeding under the stencil. Ed’s Tip: “Remember, stenciling is a “dry” brush technique.”

Move stencil to next blank area on fabric, using registration marks as a guide. Repeat last step as many times as necessary to cover fabric.

Do an internet search for the type of image you want to place on top of the patterned background. In this case, I chose a mushroom from Super Mario Bros.

Using the web image as a general guide, sketch onto fabric

Using fabric markers, outline image. Fill in desired areas with fabric paint. The result: a perfect picture for my littler gamer!

Sporty Spice Wall Art

If free-handing an image isn’t you gig, give utilizing the stenciled background a try! For the 2nd piece I made, I began with Ed’s hexagon pattern in a lighter color then used a dinner plate to draw a ball shape on top of it and filled in selected pieces with dark, fabric paint. Voila, a soccer ball for my all-American boy!