Faux Enameled Stencils

My guess is that upon reading the title of this post, most people will be thinking: “????”

Well, it was an experiment—and the jury is still out as to whether is was a “success” or a fail.  I’ll let you be the judge!

Here’s the deal.

Last August the lovely and talented Suzanne of Meridian Road posted a tutorial showing how she made these cute little faux enameled tags.

I loved ’em.  With a deep and abiding love.  I love the cute little number 5 above the mostest, because she actually sent it to ME!  It has a place of honor on my suitcase shelves.

So when I came across these cute little chipboard stencils at Ben Franklin (39 cents each!), I decided to give her technique a try.

First I used my 3-hole punch to…well, punch holes…in the corners.  I briefly considered using my drill, but cooler heads prevailed.

Next I gave everything a coat of Rustoleum Primer, followed by gloss white paint.  Would you believe I didn’t have gloss white paint in my stash?  I had to go paint shopping!  It’s one of my very favorite things to do. Thanks, Suzanne.

Next step…no pictures.  Whoops.  I used plain old black acrylic paint to simulate chippiness (is that a word?) on my little stencils.  Then I had to get creative to figure out how to attach the center of the “p” and the “g”—so I broke out the toothpicks and hot glue!

“Mother (that’s me) is the necessity of invention.”  …or something like that.

Last everything got a coat of Rustoleum clear gloss topcoat.  That’s when the magic happened—suddenly, they started to look like chippy enameled stencils (now you see where I got the title of this post). 

Some of it crackled a little…see?

I love that!

      **Here lies the problem.**

Have you ever made a project you liked, but couldn’t figure out where or how to display it?  You HAVEN’T?  Could you fib a little and tell me you have?

I tried it on the buffet.  UGH!   As in UGH-ly!

Then on the stair railing…maybe.

…draped on an old door…

…or draped across an empty frame.

That’ll do.

If, in your mind, you added, “Pig” after the previous sentence, please stop and give me a virtual high-five.

I think it works well on my “wall of frames!”

If you think you’d like to make your own faux enameled something-or-other, trust me when I say…visit Meridian Road!

Where would you hang it??

 

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Countdown to Spring	My Repurposed Life
Censational Girl
The CSI Project	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
From My Front Porch to Yours	{Primp}