Handmade Wall Stencil

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope 2016 if off to a good start for you. 

So far I'm doing OK with my 2 resolutions: keep up with the house cleaning and paint more. Only 361 days to go. 

Speaking of painting, although this isn't the kind I had in mind when setting my 2016 goals, here's a stenciling project I completed a few weeks ago. It's also a little peek at how the baby's room is coming along. I still have a couple more months to finish up, but I'm about halfway there. It's very hard getting a decent angle of this wall without the mirror reflecting all the junk in the background! I'll be sure and post some nice shots when it's completely finished. 

This room was the former guest/craft room. The plain white walls were a little too bland in here, so I decided to paint one wall Sherwin Williams Tidewater Blue and then add some stenciling. 

I started out by drawing a picture of a bee. 

Then I placed the drawing on top of a cutting mat and put stencil material over it. 

With a craft knife, I cut out the design. 

 I tested it out on paper and did a few more tweaks until it looked just right. 

 I used painter's tape to hold the stencil in place on the wall while rolling over it with a pretty dry foam roller. The key to good stenciling is knowing how much paint to load on your roller. You're better starting off too dry than to wet.

With a design like this, you'll want to make sure that you decide on a pattern before you start stenciling. 

I used a level to make sure my rows went straight up and down and a piece of card stock as a spacer. 

 This wasn't a quick project. I found myself getting really worn out after about half the wall was done, so I put my stencil down and came back to it the next day. I know if I'd rushed through this I would have made a ton of mistakes. So my advice is take your time when you stencil. 

You can wrap your foam roller in damp paper towels, stick it into a zip lock bag and store it in the refrigerator overnight. 

While this project took some time, it didn't take a lot of money. The stencil material was under $10 at the craft store and, lucky for me, I had all the other supplies and paint in the basement. 

I still have some rearranging to do with the pillows and artwork, but at least the painting is complete in this room! 

I'll be posting more baby room updates as I complete things.