*Affiliate Links Included
Stencil designs bring out the artist in me. I love paintings, but I am not artistic. You may remember my story about my college art teacher calling my papier mache lizard “road kill”. This is my natural skill set, but that doesn’t stop me from using resources to overcome my crafting deficits.
Fortunately, painting is a very forgiving medium because I can paint over mistakes. There were lots of mistakes! LOL!
I will include a supply list at the end so you can recreate this craft yourself.
Directions:
I started with a 7 x 14 stretched canvas 2-pack. This is the perfect size for a small wall behind my desk at home, but I could do this same project in nearly any size. Next, I chose a stencil with some lovely vines and several different types of flowers. I then chose some acrylic paints in several of my favorite colors: Bright Green, Lime Sherbert, Patina (light blue), Pink Parfait, Yellow Flame, and Titanium White.
I first practiced on some art paper mainly to help myself make some decisions about colors. Once I felt good about my color scheme, I began on the actual canvas.
I started with the vine stencil. I used a spouncer dipped in the Bright Green paint from Folk Art. A stencil brush will give a cleaner look, but I was looking for “homemade with imperfections”. Wipe the stencil or allow it to dry between uses to prevent smears or unintentional transfers of paint. I used a flat paint brush to touch up any parts that were as sharp as I wanted them to be. Allow the green to dry completely before moving on.
Next, I used a pencil to outline where the stencil petals would fall to be sure that I made my sponge circles a little bit larger.
I covered the entire flower areas with Patina (light blue) paint from Folk Art using a spouncer. Allow the blue paint to dry completely. I love the blue so much that I was tempted to apply the flower stencil right then, but I kept going.
I used the spouncer dipped in Lime Sherbert paint from Apple Barrel to give varying amounts of green to each of the flowers. Allow the green paint to dry completely.
The spouncer dipped in Yellow Flame paint from Apple Barrel was applied next. Allow the yellow paint to dry completely.
I really like the blue, green, & yellow combination a lot and would have liked to stop right there and add the flower stencil on top, but my husband preferred a pop of a contrasting color during my color tests earlier.
I used a smaller spouncer to add punches of Pink Parfait paint from Apple Barrel. I left one small flower with no pink just because I can. Allow the pink to dry completely.
I used a spouncer dipped in Titanium White paint from Folk Art along with the flower stencils on top of each flower to complete the look. I used the white paint to cover a few small smears using a flat paint brush. Once the white paint dried, I decided to also add some more vines above the largest flower.
*Some of the following links are affiliate links. All links are included for your convenience. I may receive a commission from purchases made through some of these links.
Supply List
Canvas: Simply Stretched Canvas 2-pack 7 x 14″ from WalMart
Spouncers: Plaid 34106 10-Piece Spouncer Set
Stencil: “Petal Power” Folk Art Laser Stencil from WalMart
Paper Plates: Dixie 10 1/16″ Plates, 80 Count
Paper Towels
Acrylic Paints: Acrylic Paints from Folk Arts in Bright Green (#227), Patina (#444), and Titanium White (#2938) & Acrylic Paints from Apple Barrel in Lime Sherbert (#21480E), Yellow Flame (#21474E), and Pink Parfait (#20251E)
Flat Paint Brush: APG 9pcs Flat Pointed Tip Nylon Hair Acrylic Watercolor Brush Artists Paint Brush Set