Copyright 2008-10 Innovative Art Concepts, LLC. All rights reserved.

Cutting Edge Stencils is a trademark of Innovative Art Concepts, LLC

INSTRUCTIONS fOR baSIC wall STeNCIlINg page 1
These instructions will take you step-by-step through your stenciling project.
Please read them all before you start your project!
Very important: Work out your technique and color combinations on a sample board frst.
It is always a good idea to make a sample. Use a wall in the garage, a piece of cardboard,
or even an old pizza box as your sample surface. Make sure you like your color combinations
and are comfortable with your stenciling technique before hitting the real wall!
Make sure your walls are clean, dust free and in good condition. Any cracks or chips should
be repaired, flled, primed and painted prior to stenciling. All base coats should be fully dried
for at least 24 hours prior to stenciling. You can stencil over latex house paint, faux fnishes,
plaster textures, wood, furniture, paper, fabric and even some wallpaper.
Position your stencil on the wall where you like it, and
tape it to the wall with few pieces of low tack blue paint-
ers tape. We love using Scotch Blue 2 painters tape.
Do not use regular white masking tape because its way too sticky for most painted surfaces
and will likely pull off the base paint when you remove your stencil. You can also use a spray
adhesive to achieve even cleaner edges.
If your stencil needs to be perfectly vertical or horizon-
tal, use our innovative clion Stecil Level (pat. pend.) to
help with positioning. This step is not necessary for ogic
looking designs like branches, birds etc. Simply place
them where you like them
Load your foam roller by rolling it over the paint a few times until it absorbs most or all of it.
Use only dense foam rollers with rounded edges. These are available on our website.
1. Stencil(s)
2. Sample board (poster board, cardboard etc)
3. Latex or acrylic paints, including some basecoat paint
4. Dense foam roller with rounded ends, stencil brushes
5. Paint tray or a large styrofoam plate
6. Low tack painters tape, Spray adhesive (optional)
7. Cutting Edge Stencil level (optional)
8. Paper towels or rag, cleaning tools & liquid soap
9. Step ladder (optional)
GETTING STARTED
HERES WHAT YOULL NEED
Copyright 2008-10 Innovative Art Concepts, LLC. All rights reserved. Cutting Edge Stencils is a trademark of Innovative Art Concepts, LLC
Roll the stencil with your roller using light to medium pressure. Excessive pressure may cause
paint bleeding under the stencil. Be careful not to roll over the outside edges of the stencil! We
design most of our stencils with at least a 1 frame to give you some rolling room. Strategically
placing blue masking tape on the narrowest edges can help prevent roll-overs.
You can easily check how youre doing by carefully un-taping
and lifting one corner of the stencil and taking a peek. Do
you like what you see? Is it enough pressure or can it use a little
more paint? If its too pale, just put the stencil back and roll it a
couple more times back and forth, slightly adding more pres-
sure. When stenciling lighter colors over darker colors, you may
need 2 coats to achieve good coverage. Let the 1st coat dry for a couple of minutes and then roll
the stencil again.
Now remove the stencil and enjoy your artwork! A note for the
impatient: Dont just yank the taped stencil off the wall! Its
always a good idea to remove it somewhat slowly so the blue tape doesnt accidentally pull off any
background paint. Continue stenciling by repositioning your design until all walls/repeats are
done. No need to clean the stencil in between repeats. Each stencil is good for many repeats be-
fore it will need to be cleaned. Tts time to clean the stencil when
your paint build-up starts to compomise the design.
If you would like to do your next repeat in a different color,
make sure that the previous color has completely dried on the
stencil so it will not transfer to your next print. Its a good idea to
clean the stencil if you want to fip it over to create a mirror image.
We recommend a separate foam roller for each color. You can certainly use the same roller
by cleaning it well under running water and drying it as much as possible before the next use.
When you need to take a break from stenciling in the middle of the project, just cover your
paint tray with a plastic wrap, and tightly wrap a piece of plastic or foil around the roller to prevent the paint from drying up.
When youre ready to re-decorate, lightly sand your walls and simply roll 2 coats of basecoat paint over your stenciling and its gone.
INSTRUCTIONS fOR baSIC wall STeNCIlINg page 2
STENCILING WITH A ROLLER
Now pour some acrylic or latex paint on a foam plate or a paint tray. You dont need much, about 2-3 tablespoons of paint is
enough to start with. Get your dense foam roller (or stencil brush) ready. Now blot off the excess paint on a folded paper towel by
rolling it back and forth a couple times. There should be no visible paint on a roller surface, it should look almost dry. Remember,
its better to have less paint on your roller, than too much paint.
About paint: Any waterbased paint should work. Craft acrylics are great, regular latex paint will work but the best in our opinion
is the new line of Benjamin Moore paint called Aura. This paint is opaque and covers really well with 1 coat. It has just the right
consistency and is also eco-friendly. OK, now youre ready to stencil!
Copyright 2008-10 Innovative Art Concepts, LLC. All rights reserved. Cutting Edge Stencils is a trademark of Innovative Art Concepts, LLC
INSTRUCTIONS fOR baSIC wall STeNCIlINg page 3
You can also use stencil brushes to stencil your design although it is much faster with a
roller. For smaller, more intricate designs, multi-colored and shaded designs, its better to use
a stencil brush. Youll need to dedicate a separate brush for each color. Load your brush
with paint by simply squeezing a dollop of acrylic paint onto a foam plate or a into a paint tray,
then dipping just the tip of your brush into the paint. Distribute the paint on the brush tip by
doing a few circles on a foam plate. Now, lightly rub off some paint onto a folded paper towel
and youre ready to stencil. Your brush should have
very little paint on it. Remember, less paint is better for
stenciling!
Its best to use a dabbing motion or a light circular
motion with your brush. Just dab or swirl in a light
sweeping circular motion, covering all of the design. You can add various colors where
needed by dabbing with a different color next to a frst one. Create dimension with shad-
ing by adding a darker color like Raw Umber acrylic to the edges of the openings. Just
make sure to avoid a straight sweeping motion towards the edges of the openings, since
that can force the paint under the stencil and mess up your work.
STENCILING WITH STENCIL BRUSHES
Corners: First, dont be intimidated. Corners are no big deal if you follow our instructions. For
best results, tape and stencil one wall at a time. Secure half of the stencil in place leaving the
other half unattached. Roll it straight into the corner ( or use your stencil brush), then carefully
un-tape the fnished half while holding the stencil in place with your hands. Now secure other
half with tape and roll that half into the corner. Now you can remove the stencil. Dont worry
about flling every little bit of design in the corner crease. The eye flls these gaps and makes it
look completed even if there are some unstenciled areas left. A few more corner tips: Taping the
stencil to both walls at once usually does not produce a good result. Using spray adhesive may
help with holding a large stencil in place when working on corners.
Mistakes: Usually its enough to just wipe off a fresh mistake with a wet cloth, baby wipe or
moist q-tip. It is always a good idea to have some basecoat paint at hand in case you need to
correct bigger mistakes. In this case, just re-roll or re-sponge
your basecoat over a dry mistake. It may take 2 coats to
cover. Let it dry completely and now youre ready to re-stencil the area.
A word or two about bridges. Bridges are the small sections of the stencil pattern that hold the
stencil together. Some people prefer to paint over the gaps left by the bridges when the stencil-
ing is complete. Doing this can sometimes improve the look, but is not always necessary. In
general, we try to design our stencils in such a way that the bridges blend with the fow of the
organic designs and are not too obvious, or in a way that they contribute to the pattern. If they
still bother you and you want to make them go away, simply paint over them by connecting
them with a small artist brush. This hand painted touches can be a lot of fun.
TIPS, TRICKS AND OTHER NOTES
Copyright 2008-10 Innovative Art Concepts, LLC. All rights reserved. Cutting Edge Stencils is a trademark of Innovative Art Concepts, LLC
Cleaning and Storage: The stencil will eventually accumulate a thick layer of paint after
many repeats, so it will have to be cleaned. You can let it dry completely and simply peel off
the paint skin, or you can give it a brief soaking in a tray or tub of water and then wash off the
paint. Best cleaning method we have found is to place the stencil on a fat surface like a large
baking tray, and scrub it with a dish cleaning brush under running water. The paint comes
right off and the stencil doesnt get entangled or damaged this way. Please dont let pieces of
paint go down the drain. Its bad for your plumbing and for the environment! Always insert a
mesh strainer into the drain hole and then shake out the paint pieces into a trash can.
After the stencil is clean, place it on paper towels to dry, and pat it with a roll of paper towels
to speed up the drying process. For a large project it may be smart to purchase 2 or even 3
stencils to save time on cleaning. Store your stencils fat, in large drawers if you have them,
or under the bed interlaced with paper. Alternatively, you can hang them clipped to a clothes
hanger, but dont store them rolled, unless its the only option.
Cleaning brushes: Brushes are best cleaned under running water using this smart clean-
ing tool (see pic.) which helps to get out all the paint particles. Add a drop of Murphys Oil
soap for better cleaning and for conditioning of your brush bristles. Liquid soap also works.
Repairs: If you accidentally break one of the bridges in the design while stenciling or
cleaning, you can easily fx it by attaching small pieces of clear packing tape on both sides of
the break.
INSTRUCTIONS fOR baSIC wall STeNCIlINg page 4

CLEANING, STORAGE, REPAIRS
About spray adhesives: Yes, you can use them with our stencils, but we personally dont like them. The pros: The stencil sticks
to the wall very securely without any tape, and the seepage will be minimal, even with a sweeping brush motion or some pressure
on your roller. That means cleaner crisper egdes which is great. Adhesive can come in very handy with large stencils or ceiling
stencils. The cons: Sometimes particles of adhesive transfer to the wall and leave a sticky residue. This can happen if youve
sprayed too much adhesive and didnt let it dry a little bit before putting the stencil on the wall. The fumes are also unhealthy for
you and your family. Lastly, the stencil will end up sticky, making clean-up and storage a bit challenging. In our 20+ years of sten-
ciling we fnd that blue tape is all you need to secure your stencil. Our stencils are made of a thick, sturdy plastic that will cling to
the wall and make stenciling easy and fun.
If you decide to go with adhesive, lightly mist (not drench!) the stencil with a well-shaken can of spray adhesive (preferably outside
and far away from other objects). Let it dry for a minute, and then place the stencil on a ceiling or wall. Its good for 1-3 place-
ments, then it will need to be re-misted. We prefer Elmers spray adhesive. It has just the right tack. Clean-up tip: Spray the stencil
with Simple Green to help to remove adhesive residue.