Stencils, so much fun!

So my husband has been building us a home in his spare time (where he finds any spare time, I am not sure) and I get to decorate it! I love this part. Right now I am in the painting process and I really like the look of damask wallpaper; however, I do not like wallpaper. I decided to get the look by making a stencil.

I found a pattern I really liked and embellished it in Gimp 2 (free Photoshop type program online). If you want the look of wallpaper then the type of stencil you want is called an All Over Stencil.

I then ordered some stencil material online from Mister Art. I got the .010 thickness (which is recommended for a reusable stencil). I then used a stencil cutter (see picture). It heats up and melts the stencil making it very nice to cut out curves. I taped the plastic to my pattern and inserted a square piece of glass between my pattern and the plastic. It is so much easier to cut on glass than paper.

I then went to print it! I wanted it big enough that you could see it and it would look nice, but it was not going to fit on 1 page. After reading many articles asking how to print something bigger than an 8.5 x 11 paper, with no luck; I finally started playing on my own. I found if you open the picture in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer they have a wizard that will help you do it.

You don't really get to choose the size, but it was better than anything else I found. If you hit the print button it will open a wizard, allow you to choose your picture, then when you get to choose your printer it also has a button where you can choose your printing preferences. I clicked on that button and it popped open a new window.

In this window I opened the Page Setup tab and under page layout I clicked on Poster Printing. I specified that I wanted divided into 9 (3x3) and that is what I got. Nine papers three across and three down. I then finished the wizard and it worked. This is the picture I printed out and made from the design at the top of this post.

I started stenciling last night. I have not finished the room; however I really like the look. I'll post pictures of it soon.

Happy Canada Day!