Pillow Sham Stencil Project & Giveaway

***Update: This giveaway has ended, but we'd love for you to read all about our stenciling project below. Find the lucky winner at the bottom of the post. Stay tuned for future giveaways right here at 17 Apart! *** 

Today we're excited to share a fun and quick stenciling project we took on and have a special giveaway for you at the bottom of this post so you can try out a stenciling project of your own!

As you can gather, we stenciled a set of pillow shams to go in Stephanie's bedroom. Here's why we needed new ones in the first place — when we first got Basil, he chewed everything in sight. Stephanie's pillow shams were one of the casualties:

 

He'd go up to the side of the bed at the time and grab the corners closest to the edge to pull them off the bed before we could catch him. We'd been bad about not replacing them, thinking we'd completely update the bedding in that room that could function for both her (when she visits from college) and as a guest bed, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. When the nice folks from Cutting Edge Stencils offered to send us our pick of stencils for a home project, we thought creating some updated shams that work in that room would be fun.

When it came to actually choosing the stencil, we went with the Casablanca craft pattern and used the same metallic multi-surface paint we used in our rainstick gourd project. We went with the craft size stencil since we didn't want to paint an entire wall or accent wall in the house and like the idea that we could get a project done fairly quickly.

We watched the video they sent us, which lays out instructions for application:

Looks easy, right? That video made us ready to get to it. I laid out all the supplies we'd need on the back table:

 

Prep was super simple. Once we had all of our supplies, we simply ironed out the two basic pillow shams, slipped a thick sheet of brown paper grocery bag inside to prevent paint bleed-through to the other side, and measured out where we'd first place our stencil:

Once the stencil was in place, I loaded up the paint roller as evenly as possible, wiped it down on the paper towel and began rolling directly onto the fabric sham:

Tim held the stencil in place while I rolled away. We tried to roll lightly to give the overall coverage and appearance that of being a bit weathered or "shabby chic" looking.

As soon as I was finished rolling out a section of the pillow, Tim would lift off the stencil in a steady motion and we'd match up and overlap the stencil where we'd just applied paint and roll out a new section. 

Without fail, the most satisfying part in the stenciling process was when we'd get to peel back the stencil and admire the fresh pattern left underneath. It took 3 separate & quick stencil placements per sham to get them completely covered — which made for a fun weekend project that we could call complete in very little time. When we were finished with both shams, the stencil came clean with a rinse of warm soapy water.

    

And with that, the chewed up pillow shams were replaced with something a little brighter and fresher for the time being:

This room is pretty green all around, ha. Lots going on in there.

For some reason, the metallic sheen hasn't been translating as well via the camera-to-computer screen — this is the best image I captured to try to illustrate the subtle metallic undertones of the paint:

We like how the pillows are reversible with solid fabric on one side in the event Stephanie or a guest might want to actually sleep on these — the sham surface with the paint is a little rough to the touch:

So we had some fun with stencils and have some new pillow shams to show for it! If this is something you'd like to try, check out the different stencil offerings on Cutting Edge Stencils, find DIY ideas on their blog, and enter the giveaway below for a chance to win any stencil of your choosing, up to a $50 value.

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Giveaway Details

The fine folks behind Cutting Edge Stencils have generously offered one of our lucky readers any stencil of their choosing, up to $50 in value, from their selection of stencils, sitewide! To enter, simply visit Cutting Edge Stencils and come back to leave a comment on this post, letting us know which stencil is your favorite.

Each of the following will earn you an additional entry:

• Like Cutting Edge Stencils on Facebook, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so. 
• Follow Cutting Edge Stencils on Pinterest, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so.
• Follow Cutting Edge Stencils on Twitter, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so.
• Any one or combination of the following: "Like" 17 Apart on Facebook, follow 17 Apart on Twitter, follow 17 Apart on Google+ and sign up for our mailing list by clicking the envelope button in our sidebar — then leave 4 separate comments on this post for each letting us know you've done so.
• Follow this blog by clicking the RSS button in our sidebar, then leave a comment letting us know you've done so.
• Share this post by clicking the Facebook Like button at the top of the post and leave a new comment on this post letting us know you've done so.
• Tweet about the giveaway including the following: "Ever wanted to try a stenciling project? @17Apart & @CESTencils are giving away up $50 in stencils: http://tinyurl.com/acl2vr6" along with anything else you'd like to include  — then leave a new comment on this post letting us know you've done so.

The giveaway will end Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 11:59 PM ET; the winner will be auto-generated using Random.org and updated in this post shortly thereafter. Be sure to come visit to find out the winner and good luck!

***Update: This giveaway has ended, the lucky winner is commenter #78. Thanks to all that participated and stay tuned for future giveaways right here at17 Apart! ***