Feature Friday: Musee D'Orsay Chairs

I've been really tardy with my posts lately.  I was all set to post this on Friday and then my toddler got the 24 hour flu.  Just when I thought my husband and I had escaped catching it, we both came down with it over the weekend.  I spent all weekend laying on the couch and I was exhausted from that.  On the plus side, we're all caught up on TV!

But we're all on the mend now and I have been waiting to share this awesome transformation with you guys.


Ange from Chair Up (great blog name!) took these balloon-back chairs from whoa to wow.

Gorgeous right?  Now check out the before pic!

That fabric, oh my goodness.  There aren't words.  So needless to say, just recovering the seats made a HUGE difference.  But she also painted the chair frame with a grey and white antique finish.  Looks amazing.

There's some great detail work on these chairs.  I love this floral carving and the shape of the legs.

Then she used our Musee D'Orsay stencil package (you get the address and scrollwork and the chair is separate) and did the chair in a muted grey, address in black.  Looks very sharp!

And then she made 4 of them!!  Don't they look marvelous at that dining room table?

You should absolutely check out Chair Up, it's a great blog.  Here's a link to the specific post I'm referencing here. 

Here's a link to our French section, which has the Musee D'Orsay stencil. 



Is it Tuesday already?  We'll be back tomorrow with our regularly scheduled Etspiration!

Have you gotten your pumpkin yet?  I think I'm going to paint a pumpkin this year instead of sacrificing my kitchen to pumpkin guts.  I saw this chevron pumpkin on Apartment Therapy that was too cute but there was no explanation as to how it was done.

I'm going to use this tutorial and report back!

Special Wednesday Post: Art Is Beauty Giveaway

Hey all!

Got exciting news for you today!  We have been featured on the blog Art is Beauty!

Karin, moderator for the blog, had a free cupboard door she transformed with CeCe Caldwell Paint and our 12x12 Cafe Des Artistes stencil.

It looks fab.  But the real reason I'm mentioning this to you is we're doing a giveaway on her blog!  If you pop on over, she has instructions on how 2 of her readers can win our stencils.  We're giving away one 12x12 and one 5.5x11.5.  Exciting!

Click here to check out the blog post with the giveaway info.

We'll be back on Friday for our regular feature post.  Sorry the blog has been so light these past few weeks, we've been swamped getting orders out.  (That's a good thing though!)

Until Friday!

Etspiration Wednesday: Something to Crow About!

Hiya everyone!

Back in Oregon after back to back trips to Arizona and California.  I missed my pine trees.  I missed feeling cold!  I got back yesterday and there were crows perched on every roof and high wire.  I don't know a surer sign of Fall in the Northwest than that.

Crows are such a mainstay in Primitive art.  We don't do as much with them as our designs have more of a French feel, but we do have quite a few holiday listings with crows in them.  Etsy, as you might imagine, is chalk full o' crows.  I did some browsing today to see what crow treasures I could find. 

Here's some great stuff!

1A:  Halloween Crow Pillow Image Courtesy 112FarmhouseLayne
1B:  Paper Mache Old Crow Box Image Courtesy HanwayMillHouse
1C:  Crows Gather Here Stencil Image Courtesy Maisondestencils

2A:  Three Crow Brand Allspice Tin Image Courtesy DownEastCollectibles
2B:  Primitive Halloween Burlap Bunting Image Courtesy SweetMeas
2C:  1851 Hand Colored Bird Plates Image Courtesy LandofNodStudios
2D:  Roland Bauer Feedsack Stencil Image Courtesy Maisondestencils

3A:  Primitive Crow Candle Holder Image Courtesy HitOrMissTreasures
3B:  Blank Crow Note Cards Image Courtesy NatureGoods
3C:  Potting Shed Stencil Image Courtesy Maisondestencils

4A:  Farm Fresh Pumpkins Stencil Image Courtesy Maisondestencils
4B:  Halloween Silhouette Pillow Covers Image Courtesy TheBobbinsNest
4C:  Crow Handpainted Ceramic Mug Image Courtesy OtisRein
4D:  Hitchcock The Birds Sign Image Courtesy ZietlowsCustomSigns

See you on Friday for a wonderful feature!

Feature Friday: The Thorsten Eckart Pillow

Good Morning Everyone!

We have been so busy with our 20% sale.  Just in case you aren't on our mailing list, right now all our stencils are 20% off now through Sunday.  Just use code: stockup20 when checking out on our website!

I wanted to show you guys this great pillow though, courtesy of FunkyShique.

FunkyShique makes these out of feedsack inspired fabric as they are bed pillows.  The fabric has a more soft feel, which I can appreciate.  I don't think I'd want to lay my weary head on a grainsack.

She sells these in her etsy shop as a single listing and a two pillow listing.

They look just perfect on that bed!


Thorsten Eckart is one of our German Feedsack stencils, I just love it.  You can check out it and it's other German brethren in our Feedsack category.  

Here's a link to the listing for this item in FunkyShique's Etsy shop.  You should totally check out her Etsy shop, it is filled with amazing stuff!

Feature Friday: The Bordeaux Headboard

Hi Readers!

Sorry for the late post, we've been so busy lately!  I wanted to show you another in-house project Laura did.  We have a wonderful client who requested a custom design of a Bordeaux Wine Label.  Well we designed it all and cut it and the first version turned out to be an "oops" stencil where we goofed up on an R.  Now we couldn't send it with a flaw like that, so we had to redo the stencil and mail that version. 

That left us with a 99.9% perfectly great 24x24 stencil, which seemed terrible to just toss in the trash.  So Laura decided to redo the headboard in one of her bedrooms with it.  Check it out.

Great, right? 

Here's how she did it, wish I had a few more process pics for you!

She roughed up the headboard with sandpaper so the paint would adhere better (it was just a plain wooden headboard).  Then she glued on the scallop-work that's at the top and bottom corners.  (I call that stuff gingerbread, not sure if it has an actual name). 

She painted an undercoat with a taupe base color.  Then she applied Folk Art Crackle Medium.   Next came that deep blue top coat.  She sanded the edges to expose some of the taupe base coat and then stained the edges with a wood stain.   The gingerbread got a coat of Folk Art metallic bronze paint. 

That left her at this point.  Do you see how cloudy the top coat is right now?  There are a few options to rectify that.  You can spray on sealer, which we have done many times.  I have problems with spray paint and so does Laura.  I have a really heavy hand and I almost always get a blotchy seal and drips from spray paint.  What Laura did here was brush on Modge Podge for a sealant and it worked great. 

Big difference, right? 

We just loved this custom, so we wanted to share with you.  This is an exclusive design and not for resale, but if you are ever interested in having custom work done, just shoot us an email. 

Hope the rest of your weekend is swell.  I'm sitting here getting caught up on work and listening to Ray Charles.  Doesn't get much better than that!  :)

Etspiration Wednesday: Alphabets

I love letters.  I am a font junkie, can't get enough letterpress blocks.  I obsess over old broadsides and vintage Victorian ads, and all for the letters.  Half of the fun of designing a stencil is finding that perfect letter style to compliment the idea of what we're going for.  We've got a number of complete alphabet sets in our Alphabet category now.   We also have quite a few selections for big 12x12 individual letters in the Alphabet category as well.  We also do some custom monogram stencils!  But as you well know, found letters are also amazing.  Here's a look from Etsy at some amazing alphabets and individual letters that tie in famously with our alphabets!

1A:  Custom Framed Cursive Alphabet Card Image Courtesy Oliverpoodle
1B:  Custom Spencerian Letter Stencil Image Courtesy Maisondestencils
1C:  French Decor Alphabet Book Coasters Image Courtesy CheltenhamRoad

 Love this Alphabet card in 1A, takes me right back to grammar school.  Fun fact:  My mom's handwriting actually looks like this.  Mine is basically illegible chicken scratch. 

2A:  French Animal Alphabet Print Image Courtesy ChildsTouch
2B:  Alphabet Softcover Notebook Journal Image Courtesy momentinthesun
2C:  Deco Style Winged Wooden Letter Image Courtesy EdiesLab
2D:  Serif Style 3x3 Alphabet Stencils Image Courtesy Maisondestencils

I dig these winged letters that EdiesLab does.  They can do a whole alphabet that way and I want to buy every single thing in their shop!!

3A:  Deco Red Alphabet Tape Image Courtesy KaynisKreations
3B:  Alphabet With Bird Letterpress Broadside Image Courtesy BigWheelPress
3C:  Ornate Western 4x4 Alphabet Stencils Image Courtesy Maisondestencils
3D:  Handmade Embossed Card Set Image Courtesy MichelleMach

 That alphabet tape is Washi tape, which is some of the coolest stuff around.  I'm not much of a scrapbooker, which is one of the primary applications I've seen for Washi tape, but the possibilities are endless! 

'

4A:  Custom Gothic Letter Stencil Image Courtesy Maisondestencils
4B:  Sign Language Custom Tote Bag Image Courtesy lilimandrill
4C:  Vintage German Wax Mold Hornbook Image Courtesy catsandthecradlesoap
4D:  Plastic Acrylic Sign Board Letters Image Courtesy willworkfordecor

This hornbook in 4C is pretty amazing.  This item was my requisite "I learned something" in the making of this blogpost.  So hornbooks were these handheld primers that small children used to learn their letters or religious passages, so called because they were protected with a thin layer of horn or mica.  (mica is a transparent-y sort of mineral).  Now most hornbooks were kept for quite some time, passed down, and are collectible today.  But this particular listing is for a horn book mold, which cake batter was poured into.  So you could have your cake and learn something too!

Thanks as always to the Etsy sellers for use of their images.

We've got a lovely feature coming up on Friday, stay tuned!

Feature Friday: Paris Apartment Chair and Desk

Well I'm a day late and a dollar short with our Friday Feature!  I'm out here in Arizona visiting family and it's simply too hot to be on time.  :)

Check how great this feature is.  Kelly from Shabulous took this desk and chair from a consignment store and stencilifed (totally a word) them.

Now these were great furniture pieces to begin with.  Particularly that chair, look at the back!  It was made for stenciling on.

She used Paris Grey and Graphite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for the paint.  Always great choices, we loooove Chalk Paint!

Now this here is great.  She used a ruler to make sure she was painting our Fleur de Lis border stencil straight on the desk.  Never in a million years would I have thought of that, but what a good idea.

For the chair back, she used our Paris Apartment No 5 stencil.  This is one of our most popular chandelier stencils. 

Here's the finished product.  The chair and desk look terrific together. 

If you'd like to check out our Fleur de Lis border and other border stencils, hop on over to our Flourish and Scroll category.

To have a look at Paris Apartment No 5 and our other chandelier stencils, check out the Chandelier category. 

Definitely check out Shabulous, it's a great blog and we were delighted to be featured there.  Here's a link to the original post.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Wednesday!