Leslie W. had the winning entry in our iStencils Giveaway. Congratulations Leslie! I’ve sent an email to the address associated with your winning comment, but if you don’t receive it, please contact me. Thanks to everyone who participated in our first giveaway event. I hope to offer more of these for my readers in the future!

Tips for Stenciling on Fabric with Paintstiks

I’ve also found some excellent tips for stenciling with paintstiks on fabric that I wanted to share with you. Both of these resources can be found in the Cedar Canon Textiles Learning Center.

In this video, Tips for Successful Stenciling, Shelly Stokes does an excellent job of walking you through the process of stenciling on fabric with Paintstiks.

The Shiva® Paintstik Primer is a is a printable tip sheet in pdf format. It includes excerpts from Shelly Stokes’ Paintstiks on Fabric: Simple Techniques, Fantastic Results

Stenciling with Paintstiks & Giveaway Winner is a post from StencilTalk

One of the things I love about iStencils is that each design is available in multiple sizes. For the second of my two stenciled pillows, I used the same Damask pattern as on the first, but in a smaller size. To mix it up a little more, I repeated the motif to create an allover pattern, and used copper and gold paintstiks to compliment the turquoise of the first pillow. Don’t they look nice together?

The stenciling technique for this pillow was pretty much the same as for the first, so I’ll skip the full tutorial and just hit on the differences.

Supplies

• iStencils’ Damask Stencil, #05-00014
• Shiva Paintstik, Iridescent Copper
• Shiva Paintstik, Iridescent Gold
• 14″ Canvas Pillow Cover***
• 14″ Pillow Insert

• Stencil Brushes
• Painter’s Tape
• Paper Towels
• Foam or plastic plate to use as a palette
• Carboard

*** Please note that the blank pillow covers I used in these projects are no longer available, so the link takes you to a similar item.

I wanted to confine my damask pattern to the center of the pillow, so I taped off the flange with painter’s tape, using the seam to determine placement.

To get just the right shade for my pillow, I combined the gold and copper paintstiks. Paintstiks are really easy to blend together. I just put both colors on my palette (foam plate), then loaded my brush a little from each, mixing them right on the brush.

Since this particular damask design wasn’t intended to be used as a repeat pattern it didn’t have registration marks to guide me, but I like living on the edge, so I just did some careful measuring. In this case, I was stenciling a small area, so any variations would not be too noticeable. If you’re doing a larger area, you’ll probably be better off opting for a pattern that’s intended to repeat.

Giveaway

And now for the details of our first stencil GIVEAWAY! You have a chance to win a $50.00 iStencils gift certificate. How to enter? All you need to do is Like iStencils on Facebook, then comment here to let us know that you did.

Bonus Entries

Want more chances to win? We’re offering fives ways to get bonus entries. Try any of these:

1. Visit iStencils, then leave a comment here telling us what you’d like to stencil.
2. Like StencilSearch’s Facebook Page and leave a comment on this post telling us you did. If you are already a Facebook fan, that counts too! Just leave a comment telling us so.
3. Share this giveaway on Facebook, and leave us a comment.
4. Blog about the giveaway, and leave a comment here, with a link to your blog post.
5. Pin an image from today’s or yesterday’s post on Pinterest, then share the link to your pin in a comment on this post.

Up to 6 entries per person. Just remember that for any of these entries to count, you need to leave a comment on this post, telling us what you did to qualify!

You have until Wednesday, May 9th, to get your entries in. The winner will be chosen via Random.org and the name will be announced by Friday, May 11th. Good Luck! And win or lose, don’t forget you can save 15% at iStencils through Mother’s Day, May 13th by using the stencilsearch15 coupon code.

Fine print: Giveaway ends Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 11:59PM ET. Winner will be chosen at random. USA residents only. Must be over 18 years old to enter. In order to win, all rules and entry guidelines must be followed.

Disclosure: this post is brought to you by iStencils. Please see my disclosure page for a complete statement.

Another Damask Stenciled Pillow and a Giveaway is a post from StencilTalk

When long time sponsor iStencils offered to send me some stencils to play with, I was beyond excited. For one thing, I really needed a painting break, and this was the perfect excuse. For another… well, who doesn’t like free stuff? And you know what’s even better? Starting tomorrow you’ll have a chance to get free stuff too, because that’s when our iStencils giveaway starts. But first things first, and for my first project using my stash of new stencils, I’ve stenciled a pair of canvas pillows with this Damask pattern. Here’s a how-to on the first of the two pillows.

Supplies

• iStencils’ Damask Stencil, #05-00014
• Shiva Paintstik, Iridescent Turquoise
• 14″ Canvas Pillow Cover
• 14″ Pillow Insert
• Stencil Brushes
• Painter’s Tape
• Paper Towels
• Foam or plastic plate to use as a palette
• Carboard

The first step in any project is gathering your supplies. I happened to have most of these on hand, but I’ve linked to sources, where possible. The blank pillow covers I used are no longer available, so I substituted a link a similar item. If you’re handy with a sewing machine, you could even make your own.

I really like the stencil creams and paintstiks for stenciling on fabric. I would usually recommend pre-washing your fabric prior to stenciling, but with canvas, you’d just end up with a wrinkled mess, so I don’t plan to wash these. Ever. But if you have a fabric you do want to be able to wash, by all means prewash prior to stenciling and heat set 24 hours after.

I placed a piece of cardboard inside my pillow cover prior to stenciling. This helps stabilize the surface and prevent any paint from bleeding through. Bleed through isn’t likely to happen with the paints I was using, but as you can see from this photo, there is a button on the back of this pillow cover, so the cardboard provided a flat surface for my stenciling.

Center the stencil and tape in place. Creating a tape “hinge” along the top of your stencil allows you to check your progress as you go.

Before you start stenciling, prepare your paintstik by removing the protective skin from the end. You can do this by pinching it off with a paper towel. Rub the paintstik onto your plate/palette. Swirl your stencil brush into the paint on the palette, then lightly offload onto a paper towel. I’m a big proponent of offloading when stenciling, but when using this paint on fabric, I found I didn’t need to offload as much as I usually would. It really helps to do a practice run on a scrap of fabric to get a feel for your materials and how they work together.

When stenciling on fabric, I always use a swirl technique to really work the paint into the fabric.

I periodically check my progress by lifting the stencil. My tape hinge keeps the stencil from shifting so my stencil print doesn’t end up with blurred edges. It looks good so far, so I continue the process (load, offload, swirl, repeat) until the entire design is complete.

Now allow your pillow cover to dry for 24 hours before stuffing it with your pillow insert. I know, it’s hard, but be patient. You don’t want to ruin your hard work with a paint smear!

There, wasn’t it worth it? It looks even prettier on my daughter’s bed.

Stop by tomorrow for the reveal of the second pillow, and details of our stencil giveaway. And for those of you who just can’t wait to start shopping, iStencils has provided a 15% off coupon code just for our readers: stencilsearch15. This discount is good through Mother’s Day, May 13th.

Damask Stenciled Pillow Tutorial is a post from StencilTalk