Pepper Design Blog

A Wintery Stencil Project

Hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas! We’re trying to still keep it low key around here as we soak in as much holiday as possible before the New Year. This is always one of the best weeks.

I wanted to share with you one of the handmade gifts that I put together this Christmas. Oh I had high hopes of sharing this project with everyone before Christmas! but… you know how that goes. There I was on the 23rd of December after everyone had gone to bed and I’m finishing up spray painting stencils by backyard patio lights at my in-laws. Haha! Motivated to create a truly handmade present for family this Christmas, I had started this project several weeks earlier but as luck would have it I finished just in the nick of time.

Simply Spray contacted me back in November about a product review regarding their fabric spray paint. Immediately the wheels started turning with creative present ideas for family and friends this holiday season. My initial idea was to track down basic white flour sack towels and several wintery stencils to design some fun kitchen gear for our Grandmas, moms and aunts.

After much searching, I stumbled upon inexpensive white flour sack towels at Rite-Aid (I think they were about $1 a piece), and several sets of patterned cloth napkins and solid-colored oven mits at Target. For the record, I also scooped up a couple of white and tan table runners from Ikea but I haven’t finished those yet (sigh).

Simply Spray sent me several different types of fabric paint to try out. They carry an upholstery spray (think spraying an entire chair or even couch), a fabric spray (for use with a stencil, soft to the touch, soaks into the fabric) and stencil paint (more of a silkscreen effect staying on top of the fabric). For these projects I used the stencil spray in gold glimmer, silver glimmer and textured white.

Creating a stencil was a bit more challenging. I first took advantage of Kevin’s seriously honed x-acto knife skills (from years of architectural modeling) and printed snowflake designs on thick white paper.

But the process was time consuming (poor Kev) and the stencils lasted for just one use. Where oh where could I find the outline of a snowflake to use as a stencil? That’s when I thought of a cricut machine and ended up at a scrapbooking shop where I learned that you can use chipboard (super sturdy) in a diecut machine! Perfect. For about $.30 a pop I made 10 ish snowflake stencils out of chipboard.

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Stenciling with Fabric Paint
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Materials: cloth napkins/tea towels, chipboard stencil, spray adhesive, Simply Spray Stencil Paint, cardboard (or hard surface to lay out fabric on), newspaper to keep your space clean! plastic gloves to keep your fingers clean – optional

To stencil the snowflakes onto my cloth napkins and tea towels, I first gave the back of the stencil a quick douse of spray adhesive to keep my stencil in place on my fabric and to help prevent bleeding. (Note – it’s best to do this holding the stencil up rather than spraying at a surface such as this countertop – but for picture purposes here’s the example)

Apply your sticky stencil to your fabric and follow the instructions on the stencil spray can for application (basically, shake shake shake). Before you spray your actual napkins, towels, etc be sure to test the spray out on scrap cloth. A few lessons learned from scrap cloth: the cans drip and they can cause giant droplets on your fabric and the spray is not always even. It’s easy to compensate for once you play around a bit.

A quick email to Simply Spray resulted in the suggestion of starting and ending the spray ‘off’ of the fabric (such as in a paper towel), this helped a ton. A couple of other tips from me would include: 1. the white textured spray has quite the ‘spray’ that will end up all over your fabric regardless of your aim – use chipboard to cover the entire piece except for the stencil area to prevent any sort of splatter (not an issue with the gold or silver glimmer spray), 2. the gold and silver glimmer spray tended to bleed quite a bit – I found it best to get about 6-8″ above fabric and quickly swoosh over stencil area with a light flow (the bleed doesn’t go away, the watermark look will dry and stay), 3. I needed roughly two cans to finish six cloth napkins and three tea towels which I didn’t anticipate, so I did end up making a Michaels run half way through the project.

Let dry in the sun for several hours to cure, then wrap up and gift!

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I played around with different materials, including a terry dish towel, dark brown napkins and even several oven mitts.  I attempted a bit of lettering but the white bled through around the edges.

In the end, the projects that I ended up gifting and loving the most were the white flour sack tea towels and the light blue patterned napkins I found at Target that I covered in a few subtle silvery snowflakes.

The tea towels each received three or so small snowflakes and two large in one corner so that about 1/3 of the towel was covered with a random pattern.

The napkins were painted with three ish snowflakes in one corner in a random pattern. Having some snowflakes just half on the napkin helped to create a random and pretty look.

It was a fun project! Simply Spray is revolutionary in that it’s the one and only aerosol fabric spray paint brand (I’ve heard the spray bottle versions are super messy) and it’s really fun to work with. Be prepared to mess up on a few of your fabrics (I bought eight cloth napkins to create six) and make sure to set up a station covered in newspaper for painting and drying. I think my mom, mom-in-law, aunt and cousin dug their new towels, napkins and mitts.

Merry Christmas! and Giving Thanks…

Merry Christmas! Hope that you are busy spending special time with the ones you love. We have had a full and blessed year! and I thought I’d take a moment amidst the hustle and bustle to give thanks for our best gifts this Christmas.

The real reason for the season.

My beautiful family and our relaxing moments together (like this trip to the river).

Our big family! All three sides. You guys give us all of the love and support we could imagine! Andy, need to find a photo with you in it .

The next generation, all of Liv’s buddies.

Friends that we hold near and very dear to our hearts. It was hard to find a picture of everyone… but you know who you are.

Man’s best friend. Err… baby’s best friend.

Celebrating Liv’s very first Christmas! Liv, you are our incredible blessing and I love you SO much.

For our faith, family and friends — it is YOU we are grateful for this season and all year long! and to all of PDB’s blog readers, Thank You for your support! Just knowing you stopped by makes my day so much brighter. Merry Christmas.

2011 Holiday Gift Guide: For the Ladies

10 days until Christmas! Which means you are officially just able to sneak in one last online shopping spree before seriously risking receiving packages on time. (One of the reasons I love Amazon Mom Prime! You would think they paid me for how much I endorse them )

Here are a few gift ideas for the ladies this holiday season. Some are traditional, some not so much. I hope it’s helpful for finding the perfect gift for your mom, wife, aunt, sister or friend. (Here’s a quick link to the kid’s gift guide and the boy’s gift guide, too.)

Let’s dive right in.

I love the simplicity and durability of Hobo wallets. I have had my current version for at least 8 years and I’m finally ready for a new one. This turquoise is perfect!

This big cable-knit sweater looks so comfy to crawl into at the end of the day.

I’m having a very hard time choosing between this watch from Monday’s style board post and this Timex above. I love watches – they’re the simplest and most practical piece of jewelry – and would be so thrilled to receive one of these this Christmas.

There are so many different styles of aviators out there but these Marc Jacobs are my favorite. I lost my second pair several months ago and haven’t justified buying another.

These earrings by Etsy artist Bella Jewels are simple and beautiful.

I keep one of these on my desk and it’s the niftiest little tool. No need to go digging through Kevin’s workbench if I have a nail to hang or a screw to tighten — the handle portion of the hammer screws right off revealing different size and types of screwdriver heads that screw on to the base making it a 6-in-1 tool. And I love the floral design.

These $29 striped throws from West Elm would make a great gift this Christmas. I’d love the blue throw for the back of our couch.

If you’re shopping for any chefs this Christmas consider gifting a bottle of real vanilla extract. There’s really no comparison to the imitation stuff most grocery stores sell. Extracts are one of those odd souvenirs that I try and bring home from traveling, there are delicious, hidden gems out there!

A friend recently shared this Anthro find with me and I thought it was so cool. This is a rolling pin I’d be displaying on the counter and not tucked away in a drawer.

While I’m not the head chef around these parts, I think this book is the best! It’s an easy and practical way to create basic, healthy meals.

Organic soap from Soap Hope is heavenly. They sent a sample my way and I don’t know how but it ended up at the bottom of my pen container on my desk (?), long story short every time I pull out a pen for work I am surrounded by the most intoxicating fragrance! So much so that I might grind up another bar of soap when there’s none left. Soap Hope invests 100% of profits to empower women around the world and to end the cycle of poverty.

Coffee comes with me everywhere and this would be a fun way to tote it around.

I’ve created a memory box (and have plans to create a few more) for every 4-5 years of tangible items that I want to put aside. By slowly cutting down on all of the ticket stubs, graduation announcements, wedding programs, birthday cards and so on that I’ve saved, I’m keeping just the most memorable mementos for my future grandchildren. Plus, special items such as Liv’s hospital hat, coins from a country we’ve traveled to or shells from a vacation have a box home that doesn’t require flattening. (Keep an eye out for deals, they have them all of the time).

I’d love to add this design book to the coffee table collection. And this one, too! I love Holly Becker , she’s the sweetest! Read her interview with PDB here.

When it comes to gift giving you cannot go wrong with a good set of stationary.

I love natural wooden picture frames (I’m on the verge of having too many) but this is a beautiful one that I’d be happy to add to the collection.

I’m trying to find a way to incorporate this fabric tape into Liv’s first birthday decor. Random, I know, but I was inspired by this party and I’m ready to get planning.

There’s something about the color and pattern of this mustard throw pillow that I’m really attracted to. It would look great in our living room.

Thick boot socks are where it’s at when it’s cold outside and you’ll be traipsing around the city for a few hours. I can not have enough thick, comfy boot socks.

These foldable shoes are really great for throwing into your bag when you’re on the go. They don’t have much of a sole so you can’t run your errands in them, but boy are they handy at the end of a night in heels.

See Jane Work’s leather portfolios are both professional and pretty. Same with this expandable tote that helps to sort paperwork or to serve as a traveling office when I often need to get work done on the road.

I adore this blouse by EmersonMade.

I’m working on breaking out of my muted color shell around the office and I just bought this baby blue iPad 2 cover for my tablet (I know, ground breaking ).

A shoulder tote that functions as a file folder/briefcase is key for me, I love this over-sized vintage tote. It’s also large enough to stash a few diapers and a sippy cup!

I use this leather cover for my iPhone – it has card pockets for my credit card and ID making it an easy item to toss in the diaper bag on the run. But this case by Kate Spade is so much funner!

Etsy artist The Spotted Barn designed this business card holder that is playful and fun.

Here is my idea of a great business shoe. Ideal for the office and casual enough for a Sunday morning bridal shower.

I just bought this Allover sequins top at The Limited on Black Friday and I love it. It’s my new favorite sparkly piece.

I first discovered Helen Ficalora back in college and have loved her jewelry ever since. Before it was trendy to wear initials on jewelry she has the most beautiful gold charms, and now she designs them with inlaid shapes and cutouts (here’s another alternative).

Candles are a classic gift for Christmas. They’re perfect for stocking stuffers or for the holiday gift exchange. Crash candles sent this guy my way and I think it’s a pretty cool piece to display, too.

A customized tray makes a great hostess gift.

I’ve been looking for an infinity scarf kind of like this one. Most seem to swallow my entire neck, hmmm… maybe I’ll make my own by stitching two ends of one of a current scarves together.

This lacquer elf would go awesome with my nutcracker statue .

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For more ideas, check out my most recent Houzz Ideabook with 20 stocking stuffer finds for under $15 here. Merry Christmas!

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