Vintage-Style Egg Co. Stencil Kitchen Art

I’ve become a bit obsessed with stencils- designing and cutting my own on a Silhouette Cameo. I have a list a mile long of creative ideas I plan to try with them. I’m also experimenting with stencil tools when not spraying paint or ink, such as pouncers, sponges, and stencil brushes, including a couple of antique railroad stencil brushes I picked up at an antiques store that work beautifully on flat hard surfaces!Today I pulled out one of my 48 by 40 brand small pallet canvas and went to work on a decorative piece for our kitchen trying out a basic craft store stencil brush. I painted one of my layered designs using a stencil cut from a plastic scrapbook paper hanging file folder opened flat and trimmed to 12″ x 20″ and fed into the Silhouette on a 12″ x 24″ cutting mat. I used repositionable spray adhesive on the back of each stencil.I added another “Market Goods” stencil cut off along the bottom. Once all paint was dry, I sanded the surface a bit to distress the paint. I then added some metal pieces from around the studio using vintage hardware. I didn’t screw the small tool tags in all the way, so they hang loose from the wood.To finish the corners of the canvas I used vintage aluminum plant labels, bent in half, hammered on with nails, and banged up a bit with the mallet side of my hammer.This project, from stencil cutting to hanging, was completed in about two hours. I hung it over the stove on the tile backsplash using Command Strips.Here are a few fun facts related to this project:

• My sign was designed to coordinate with the farmhouse decor of our newly remodeled kitchen boasting concrete countertops, an 8-foot windmill blade structure, and patchwork maple wood floors.
• B. D. Holden is my 19 year-old son, Bennett Drew Holden. (He may or may not approve of me using his name for my sign. I’m taking my chances.)
• Bennett worked over a year recently at a local egg farm collecting, sorting, and washing eggs, and maintaining ranch property. (He is currently in college studying to be a firefighter, working intern & sleeper shifts at Gold Ridge Fire Dept. in Sebastopol, California, and a lifeguard at the nearby Coast Guard Base.)
• Petaluma, our beloved town, has long been known as the “World’s Egg Basket”.
• There’s actually an egg related controversy currently happening in Petaluma right now!

But back to the topic at hand…I’d REALLY like to know your creative thoughts on stencils and stencilling:

• Have you used stencils?
• How- with what tools and medium?
• What for- papercrafting, mixed media, home decor, furniture embellishing, other?
• What kind of stencils or stencil products would you like to see on the market?

Please share in the comments below.