I'm so excited to share another great crafty book with you tonight--Stencil 101
by Ed Roth. The girls and I broke into it this afternoon and there is tons of potential for great craftiness. The book includes twenty-five pre-cut and reuseable stencils as well as ideas and tips for using them.

This afternoon I used two stencils, the horse shoe and the fawn to customize basic white tees for the girls. The stencils tear out of the book really easily and can even be stored in an expandable pocket in the back of the book, after you use them. (great idea!)

When I stenciled the tees, I laid a pad of paper inside the shirt and used pins, stuck straight into the thickness of the pad of paper, to hold the stencil in place. This was really helpful since I didn't have any type of spray adhesive to hold it and it also kept the paint from bleeding through to the back.

Per the books instructions, less is more. I started out with just a bit of paint on my sponge, dabbing and layering on color, in order to keep the paint from soaking under the stencil. I used a hair dryer to dry the paint quickly before I removed the stencil and then again to set the paint. Tomorrow, I'll iron the reverse sides of the tees to really set it permanently.

And in my opinion, this is definitely a crafty project for older children or adults. My girls only involvement was picking out what stencil they wanted and then being impatient while I worked.

Beginning to end, with distractions, the two tees probably took my 15 minutes to complete.

Now I'm feeling sassy and confident and thinking of putting a stencil above the doorway leading into the girls room or maybe even up the risers of their steps!

always has to do what her sisters are doing

And of course, the youngest of our clan had to get in on the modeling session as well. Everyone needs their turn standing on the chair. And apparently, after watching Mary, she determined that you were supposed to run your fingers over your stencil as part of the photo shoot. This girl watches her sisters' every move.

And did you guess? I have not one, but TWO copies to give away! Leave a comment, I'll announce the two winners (plus the Birk winner) on Monday. And thank you, once again to Chronicle Books!

Happy Weekend, friends!!