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Well, this is the time to really begin to think about what you want your house to look like come the warmer days of Spring and Summer. Something you’ll be proud to live with and proud to show off!

Winter is the PERFECT time to work on your home. You’re stuck in-doors, you have little else you can really do as a project, so go for it!

Take a moment, with pen and paper and walk around each room in your home. (Or at least the most lived-in areas) I do this every single year.

What are you tired of? Write it down.

What needs repaired? (This is where the “Honey do” list comes in!).

What looks drab, in need of something more cheery or inviting?

Is it time for color changes?

Need ideas? Check out all of the wonderful new projects on my Website! Others have fabulous ideas I’ve never thought of!

Decorating tip: By keeping walls, carpeting, basic large furniture pieces and draperies in “neutral colors” you afford yourself the ability to “accent” with color and change it any time you like with out a lot of hassle or expense!

“Neutral” doesn’t necessarily mean just “beige”. It’s creams, browns, pale yellows, shades of gold, even shades of greens or certain blues. (Neutral, also taking on the meaning of “Natural” in this case). The “basic” colors you would see in Nature for instance. Those are colors that nearly every other color will go with. If you keep them simple and light in depth (meaning pale), you can combine colors together to create a very peaceful feeling room.

Now let’s say you absolutely love brilliant purple! You know, that jewel tone of Amythist stones. Use that color in pillows, area rugs, tie backs for your drapes and the draping material you use as your valence. In vases, glass wear, photo frames. Go nuts with it if you want because next year it would be quite easy to change it to green or lively yellow or something similar that suits your fancy without a lot of expense or trouble. Store the purple items for changing again when you’re sick of the green or move them to another room.

Need decorating ideas? That’s actually an easy one. Walk through the furniture department or Draperies area of any large department store. The display people they hire are seriously trained in the area of putting their items up in a way to MAKE YOU WANT THEM! If they were simply “hung” or moved together as in furniture, you might pass them by. But when they are artfully accented, carefully arranged to create a setting or coordinated with other items, it creates the desire in the consumer to purchase.

You know what appeals to you. Now dissect it. What do you like about their display? Make notes if necessary. How did they drape the curtains? Look at them closely. Is this something you could do without purchasing their product? Could you buy the same thing at a cheaper store and make it work? Probably.

Is it the furniture you actually like or the way it’s displayed? What accents did they use on tables, floors. What type of rods did they use? How did they arrange the pillows, or how did they drape that long piece of fabric over the “fake” window to make it all “come together”? Can you create the same display in your home using things you already own? More than likely.

Now with your list in hand, take a few moments to visit the Website (and some of those in our links section) and look at what everyone else has been doing. Is a mural in order for that long wall where framed pictures seem to disappear? Could the ceiling use something interesting? Would plaster stenciling or molded plaster create a more beautiful room in some way? Jot down ideas for your list of rooms.

LIGHTING

Don’t forget lighting! Especially when it comes to your stenciled art! It’s one of the most important investments you can make in decorating your home. Accent lighting is something I’m terribly fond of. “Up-lights” in particular (as I know you have read on my website).

Up-lights are meant to “show off” things you have in the room (A silk ficus tree maybe? Or your mural or plaster stenciling?). Up-lights not only take away the darkness of corners or walls, they illuminate or “highlight” its features. Giving them a soft and wonderful glow.

In most cases, I don’t use standard lighting in a room unless someone is trying to read. I have “Up-lights” in nearly every corner (and on long walls behind furniture). I tend to use 25-40 watt bulbs so that it creates a similar amount of light that a standard lamp would, but it’s soft and hidden, making the room very romantic and inviting. Much in the same way a fire in the fireplace or candle light does, casting its warm glow over the room.

Up-lights are extremely inexpensive “canisters” that sit on the floor and shine upward. ( $5.99-9.99 in most areas). Most of them are position-able so that you can direct them toward, or away from an object they are hidden behind, or on to your favorite focal point such as a stenciled tree, mural or plaster design. They look fabulous behind silk or real plants. The shadows they throw in to the room create more interest than you ever thought possible. I can’t tell you just how much they alone will add to a room.

WHY CAN’T REGULAR STENCILS BE USED AS PLASTER STENCILS?

The answer is really quite simple. With “regular” stencils, (meaning stencils you would normally use paint with) you know, trees and flowers, columns and borders; in most cases, these designs are laid out to where one thing actually “touches” another. For instance, when a branch touches a tree limb or petals touch one another but they are laid out on separate overlays. Well, if you did that design in plaster, you would simply have one huge “blob” on the wall with no distinction. All of the detail would be lost entirely.

Plaster stencils, as I call them, are laid out where everything is separate or laying “ on top” of each other rather than “touching” at the sides. An example would be the plaster tree where branches are separated from leaves and leaves separated from the trunk. You need the detail of the space in between with plaster to “create” detail. That’s not to say that you cannot connect a branch to the tree trunk. It simply means, that if that were done within the stencil design, the detail would be lost.

Another reason that most stencils can’t be used with as much success is because they are typically, between 4-7 mil thick. Even the thicker craft stencils that are 10 mil. don’t give you much of a raise to speak of. You barely notice it. So I chose 14 mil (double the thickness) of most stencils. Trust me, I tested mylar densities for months, going clear up to 20 mil only to find that during the drying time, a bit of “drag” was created as gravity began it’s pull on the joint compound. I didn’t like that at all. So I kept backing down the thickness until I found that 14 mil was as perfect as it was going to get. And perfect it is.

I did however, find out that once I plastered a design, I could get even more raise without the drag if I replaced the stencil over the design and did it again (but the additional raise was nothing to really brag about so I don’t personally go through the trouble).

If I want maximum raise with plaster stenciling, I either choose a design that contains more than one overlay that “stack” on top of each other, or I simply use my palette knife or trowel to create “lifts” in the wet plaster while the stencil is still in place.

IT’S EASY TO MOLD CAST PLASTER PIECES FOR DECORATING

You’ve seen them on my Website. Those beautiful new plaster “pieces” that you cast from a mold then apply to the wall or furniture. You look at them, you think they are totally cool but you imagine to yourself that it’s not only a mess, it’s a total hassle! WRONG!

Casting plaster is easy and doesn’t have to be a mess if you don’t let it be.

Plaster of Paris is cheap at your local home store. Just a few dollars for a very large bag.

Haul that hummer home and set it up in a cardboard box to prevent spillage on to the garage floor.

Grab a cup. Any cup. And a plastic container such as an old Tupperware container you’ve been meaning to throw away for years or get some of the new “Glad” containers that are so inexpensive. Outfit yourself with a plastic spoon from the dollar store (but I know you already have 5 of them in the collection drawer in the kitchen) and a cheap wire whisk from the dollar store.

Take a garbage bag and cut it open to lay flat.

On it, I place my mold upright and spray it with “Pam” cooking spray or similar “release agent” such as silicone spray (available at the Home store). If the mold is an odd shape such as with the Oval Cornice mold, I simply wad an old towel underneath the narrow end so that the entire back of the mold is level.

The standard mixing directions for Plaster of Paris is: 1 part water to two parts Plaster of Paris. Fine, that’s easy enough. I take one cup of water and then mix cup of Plaster to it, mixing it with a “whisk”. Then I mix in the second cup. Mix until it’s good and smooth and then pour it in to the mold. If you’re doing smaller molds, try mixing ½ cup of water to one cup of Plaster or cut that by half for molds such as the Rose or Finial.

Be sure to read the mixing instructions on the bag simply because various manufacturers may require different proportions for mixing.

If your cast piece seems to crumble or break on you easily once cured, (dry) the next time you mix up a batch of fresh plaster, add a bit more of the plaster to the water than is required in the instructions. This will create a stronger piece when dry.

If you’re like me, you’ve purchased a number of different molds rather than just one. Use any left over plaster for additional pieces of other designs.

ADHERING PLASTER PIECES TO THE WALL WITH JOINT COMPOUND

You would think this wouldn’t act like glue, but sweetie pie, it sure does! And I was excited to see it.

I actually tried construction adhesive as recommended by a professional, but all of my little plaster cast ornaments, one by one, fell off the wall within the week! I could have cried! And then, my wonderful mother Fay (technical expert on my website) told me to use joint compound. It worked! The ornaments are still there, un-disturbed and looking beautiful. When I try to break them off the wall, they now don’t budge.

WHAT IF I DON’T WANT TO PERMANENTLY ADHERE THE CAST PLASTER TO MY WALL?

That’s an easy one! I have very old, raised wall paper in my hallway yet I wanted to add cast plaster pieces under each stair rung over that wallpaper. Since I didn’t want to destroy it should I ever want to remove those pieces, I simply created wire hangers and inserted them in to the backs of each cast piece before they dried.

That’s as easy as getting a bit of picture hanging wire and creating a “U” shape out of it, bending the ends to make a tight turn (sort of like a fish hook) then inserting it into the wet plaster, smoothing the plaster over the ends so that when it dried, the “hanger” would remain secure.

With my hangers in place, I simply tap a small nail into the wallpapered wall and hang my cast plaster. Now I can remove it any time I want! But I have also found that though once applied to a wall with joint compound, they are fixed good and tight, but if I spray the wall behind them with water, within a few moments the plaster will begin to loosen a bit and I can pry it off without damaging my wall. Then all I do is spray any left over plaster with water, scrape it off as well then wipe the wall down and all evidence of the cast plaster being there is gone!

PLASTER STENCILING LAY-OUT FOR CEILINGS AND BORDERS

Quite a number of you have written in asking how to deal with corners when plaster stenciling. For my standard stencils, I insist on 4 mil because you can literally bend that puppy right in to the corners of a wall and stencil directly in to the corner. Plaster stencils, being 10 mils thicker than that will not bend! So what do you do?

For both walls and ceilings, simply start in the corners and work your way toward the center. Now, you will have an odd section in the middle left over. You simply fill in with a “portion” of the design. You might think this would look un-natural but it really doesn’t since the matching wall be exactly the same. I completely fill that area with the design since I don’t want any “breaks” in the pattern or “empty spaces”.

On the ceiling, by plaster stenciling from the sides to the center of the ceiling you again, simply “fill in” the odd area in the middle rather than having an “unfinished” design on one of the sides. This is much more appealing and looks much more professional.

STENCILING BORDERS WITHOUT BREAKS IN THE PATTERN

Years ago, the common way to stencil a border around a room was to measure the design, measure the room, divide the size of the room by the size of the design which would give you just how many repeats you would need to do and exactly how much space would be between each repeat to make it look even. YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THAT!

Our painting stencils are totally clear mylar. You can see every single thing you are painting underneath. Let’s say that you are doing a vining floral stencil as a continuous border around the room. Once you have stenciled it the first time, re-line up all of the overlays and literally place the end of the design against the end of the one you just finished and mark your registration marks. Stencil the entire design again and continue this until you are down to the last one. Now, if the space left over is smaller than the design, simply “fill in” with just a portion of the design as I mentioned above in the case of plaster stenciling. I tend to start borders in an area (such as over the doorway so that any odd filled in area is not noticeable. This is SOOOOOOO much easier and so much prettier than having constant breaks in the design.

WEBSITE UPDATES!

Ok, I’m sick and tired of waiting until the new website is done to show you everything that’s new so I added 16 new designs to the website and 9 new projects from our very talented customers!

Wait till you see the new Ceiling Clouds and Ceiling Cherub designs, the new French Vineyard Background Mural stencil set and all of the new Raised plaster stencils! I can’t wait to show you!

Hopefully, this newsletter has given you more powerful information to begin the New Year with the knowledge to get you through your decorating projects more quickly and easily.

Do know that you can email me at any time with questions or dilemmas and I will help you solve them. My email for questions is: stencilstoplaster@yahoo.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Victoria Larsen

425-258-6812