Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Stencil Painting on Sheers




The following statement may sound slightly petty... given all that us military spouses do, flex, bend, adjust to... but one of the more smaller scale frustrating  aspects of being a military spouse is the continual change of curtains.  Curtains that matched one room, are too short, too long for the next house, etc... 1500 miles away.  I found some cheap sheer curtains ($3 for two panels) off of a "classifieds" trading group where we are currently based.  I wanted something for our downstairs bathroom and didn't want to spend $60 on curtains just so that I can enjoy them for the next 14 months.  I decided to use a doily to stencil Grecian looking circles on it.  A similar pattern caught my eye during a recent trip to World Market.  I got the idea of using a doily as a stencil from a child craft blog post where you use heart shaped doilies to stencil on shirts for Valentine's Day.

--- so here it is .... on with the instructions...



Supplies: Doilies, assorted paints, stubby-stencil brushes and some super cheap sheer curtains


Protect your work area.  Lay out a large (dollar store) table cloth, canvas, etc and lay out your curtain on top of it.  The paint will go through!  I used rocks to anchor down the materials while painting because in Colorado --- every day is a windy day.

I made two designs.  I painted on the "stencil" or doily and then pressed it down onto the fabric to create one shape.





Then I laid my doily down onto the sheer and stipple brushed over the small cut out shapes to create blue cirlces and then laid over again and repeated with a nice granny smith apple green.




The end result -- was hung to dry for about 5 minutes in the warm, sunny, Colorado breeze.


The end result is a sheer with a little bit of an update, has a little bit of a Grecian feel to it... slightly inspired by the new Banana Republic Trunk Line.    I think they look great with the shabby sheek end table I scored for $5 and last year's watering can, doubling as a trash can.



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3 comments:

  1. I like the colors together. I know what you mean about having to change things all the time. You came up with an ingenious plan! Good thinking!
    Liz

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  2. Good job of making something work for you!!! And thank you to you and your husband for your sacrifices as a military family. May God bless and protect you.

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  3. Great thrifty idea! Thank you for the sacrifices you make as a military wife. Curtains are a little thing in the grand scheme, but if you multiply those little things others take for granted over an enlistment or a career -- that's pretty darn important too! Thanks so much for sharing on Busy Monday at A Pinch of Joy. Hope to see you again soon!

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