I was contacted by Stencil Revolution, a small company based out of Florida, if I would try out their reusable stencils. I did not have to do a review, and I received no additional compensation, but their product is great and worthy of my honest review.
At about the same time that I was contacted by Stencil Revolution, I was talking to a lady in our church about an upcoming craft day for ladies. She said, “I have a whole bunch of pallet wood boards. Have you ever thought of doing DIY wooden decor signs?” I told her about the offer of free Mylar stencils, and our craft day idea of making wooden decor signs was now a reality. Here were the five stencils they sent me as they knew I was planning to make DIY wooden decor signs. They also have many other stencil products.
Since our craft day is only three weeks away, I decided to try to make a sign by myself without my friend’s help. I looked online for tutorials, and I went to JOANN and Michaels armed with my stencils and my list of supplies I needed. I took my stencils so that I could make sure my wood pieces were the right size. I also bought a stencil brush, a bigger brush to paint one of my wood pieces, and the paint that I needed. I bought chalk paint to paint one of my boards and outdoor acrylic paints for the stencil lettering. I also bought a sanding block as I wanted the paint to look a little distressed.
I actually made two wooden decor signs in one afternoon. I had no newspaper, so I just used the plastic bags that the stores gave me for my purchases to put under the signs. I first painted the one board that I wanted to be a different color so that it could dry while I used a stencil on my other board. I painted it with a brown chalk paint and then two layers of black chalk paint. I wanted to sand it down some so that the brown would show through in spots as the sign was to go above a picture frame that had black and brown in it. I should have done only one layer of black paint as even after sanding for a long time, I could see hardly any brown paint. Painting the three layers took time as I had to wait for each layer to dry. After it was dry, I painted the stencil word onto the board. Here is the finished product.
For my second sign, I used a wooden sign that was already finished — but I still changed it some. I’ll explain how I did the wooden sign in more detail here.
First, I gathered all my supplies. I had spray adhesive, Styrofoam plate, outdoor white acrylic paint, pickling wash paint, stencil brush, wooden board, and masking tape.- I lined up my stencil on my board to see exactly where I wanted it to be (made sure the letters would be straight), and applied spray adhesive to the back of the stencil, and stuck it to the board. I also put masking tape on each end to make sure it stayed tight to the board.
- I put some paint on the plate, and using my stencil brush, I used a “dry-paint” technique. Basically, you only put a little bit of paint on the brush, dab it on a paper towel (or plate) to take off a lot of the paint, and then dot it up and down over the stencil. I think I still used too much paint as a little bit still leaked under the stencil. I watched this video to see how to make these signs.
- I left my stencil on the board, let the paint dry, and did it all over again after the first layer of paint dried. I did three layers (only because I thought the white wasn’t bright enough at the beginning.)
- After the third layer of paint, I removed my stencil and saw that a little bit of paint had leaked below the stencil — probably because I really didn’t know what I was doing. So I took my sanding block, sanded down the board a little, then applied a light blue pickling wash over the board. I let it sit for 30 seconds, and then I wiped it off. I loved the finish effect as It looks great with the blue-grey paint on the outside of my house.
- When it was fully dry, I put a varnish over it to help protect it from the elements.
The stencils from Stencil Revolution were very easy to use; heavy-duty, and made from a quality product. I can definitely reuse the stencils over again on our church’s craft day. I need to get some Goo-Gone to take off the stickiness from the spray adhesive. I don’t know if there is a different way to apply the stencil so that it will stay tight without getting sticky. I did wash the stencils right away to remove any paint from the stencils. They still look practically new!
We live on a frugal budget, so making gifts helps to stretch our budget. It also gives our kids personal gifts that they love. I have made the pencil pouches below for all of our kids, and they never wear out! Here are many of the gifts I have made for our kids in the past:
Every year starting in 2014, I have shared a Christmas gift guide round-up with out great kid bloggers.
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Here are the supplies you need to make the “Cat in the Hat” hat:
