Stencil 101: Make Your Mark with 25 Reusable Stencils and Step-by-Step Instructions
Author: Ed Roth
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books has published another wonderful craft title with Stencil 101
. The author, Ed Roth, is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn, where he founded the graffiti art-inspired Stencil1 design company. Stencil 101 is a collection of Roth’s favorite designs, from urban to delicate and feminine.
The book contains a brief history of stenciling, tips on how to stencil, and suggestions for materials based on the project you would like to make. Projects inside include a wall, t-shirts, a dresser, a lamp shade, sneakers, a pillowcase, and a window. The wall project is one of the best for beginners, as it is a large, flat surface, but all of the projects are easy enough even for those new to the craft. My favorite project is a cake, using cocoa powder or sugar to “paint” with! I also like the greeting card project, easily created using store bought blank cards. Both are great ways to personalize a birthday, holiday, or any other celebration! The pillowcase project is also a fun one, which can be a fun weekend DIY project to liven up your bedroom décor.
The twenty-five reusable stencils come in a wide range of designs, from swallows to an owl with a moon to a poodle and even a sumo wrestler! After using the stencils, simply clean them off and store them in the handy pocket at the end of the book, ready for your next project. The stencils are mostly large and would be best for bigger canvas projects, but there are a handful of smaller stencils.
The best tip in this book is to remember there are no rules to stenciling. “If you have something to say, say it with stencils.”
And to help you say what you have on your mind, I’ll be giving a copy away to one lucky reader! To enter, just leave a comment on this post by May 3rd and let me know which of the projects mentioned in the review you will be doing first. The winner will be notified by email.
[Note: Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear at first. Some have to be approved due to a tricky spam filter and I am going through and approving them.]
i teach stenciling…so i do mostly furniture projects and some mixed media artworks with stencils…rebecca
Stenciling cake sounds quite interesting. I’d like to give that one a try.
I love this book! I looked thru it at Blick Art-it is definitely on my wishlist. I think I would first try the notecard project-before tackling the bigger projects.
We have several birthdays coming up during the next few months, so I’m thinking the cake-stenciling project would be the first to master.
I bought this book for my BFF for Christmas and wanted a copy for myself after looking through it! My first project, probably stenciled tees for the kiddos. 🙂
Sounds like a great book. I’ve got some old windows that I’m dying to experiment with etching on. I’ve been having problems finding stencils that are both reusable and large enough to look good on the glass panes. I promise that if I win this book, I’ll use the stencils on the window and send you a picture! Thanks!
greeting card project would be the first one I would try
I’m really interested in doing a t-shirt.
I would try the pillow case project first. I am moving to a new apartment and I want nice new shiny stuff but can’t afford it so I’m trying to make my old stuff new again.
I think I would do the card project first but on a scrapbook page instead. The birds sound brilliant – my partner keeps birds so do lots of pages relating to them. Second would be between the cake and the wall. I could do the cake first so I could scoff it while I was stencilling the wall maybe 😉 Lots of decorating projects being planned in our house at the mo – it’s in dire need of rejuvenation.
I really like birds. I would probably stencil the swallows on my bedroom walls.
My first instinct is to try cards, but I’d love to try stenciling on some sneakers! How cool!
I like the pillowcase idea, but I was immediately thinking art quilt, especially with the deer and the bird.
I would definitely do a wall project. What a great prize! Please enter my name in your draw.
I’ve been wanting to make a pair of bold, graphic pillow cases, and it looks like this book could be the perfect resource to get me moving on that project.
This book sounds awesome. I love to be creative but I can not draw to save my life. I would love to use the stencils to decorate some of my sneakers.
I think that I would start out with a cake