Stencil a Wall for Under $5

Stenciling seems to be quite popular these days!  As I've been redesigning my craft room closet, I just couldn't settle for white walls - they're not fun enough for my creative space.

I thought about painting the closet pink, painting stripes, painting chevron, all sorts of things.  Finally I decided to stencil giant flowers in it!

I googled around and found a few promising stencils, but at $25-$40 not including shipping, they were a little steep for a closet project.  Time to get creative!

If my Silhouette Cameo machine is good for making silhouettes, why not stencils?  I found some heavy plastic folders that I imagined would have a similar texture to stencils.  Combine the two, and ta da!

I rendered my image using the Silhouette software, and cut the folder using a #8 setting.  It took forever, but it came out pretty nice!  There were a few hangnails on it, so I smoothed them out by melting them (quickly brushing a flame over them).

I sprayed a repositionable adhesive on the back so it would make a good connection on the wall.

After positioning the stencil, I loaded a small foam roller with a dab of craft paint and rolled it gently over the stencil.

I carefully removed the stencil, put it in a new location and repeated the steps.  Occasionally I rinsed the stencil and applied a new coat of adhesive.

After a while the stencil got too gunked up with glue, so I made a second one to start fresh.  If anyone has tips for getting adhesive off plastic, please share!

If you're particular about the edges of your image, I wouldn't suggest stenciling.  Most of mine bled a little bit, and some a lot.  I touched up any big issues with white wall paint, and I'm pretty happy with the results!  Where the paint bled looks kind of like batik fabric to me - perfect for my craft room.

All in all, stenciling the closet with chrysanthemums was pretty darn easy!  Free folders, $2 for two colors of acrylic craft paint, and a few hours of work.  I already had the foam roller and the Silhouette, which would obviously add cost to your project.  But you could use an exacto knife instead.

I'm happy I didn't stick with plain white walls.  The flowers are so fun!

Bonnie Projects