Plaster Stencil Craft

Gothic Stencil

• Gothic architecture can be brought into your living room by adding raised plaster decorations in the shapes of dark images such as dragons, creatively drawn cathedral stained-glass windows and castle turrets. Create Gothic art on the walls by holding a turret stencil on the trim of the living room and applying plaster to the stencil. Run a pallet knife over the stencil to get a smooth raised depiction of a turret on the trim. Let the plaster dry before painting it.

Bricks

• Square stencils can make a brick pattern on a wall easily without the expense of the actual bricks. To make a faux red brick wall, place a long rectangular stencil on the wall parallel with the ceiling and fill it with plaster. Scrape the top of the stencil with a pallet knife to remove the excess plaster from the raised rectangle on the wall. Add more rectangles along the wall even with the first. Start another line with the rectangles centered under the place where the bricks in the above layer meet. Paint the bricks dark red, and leave the sections between the bricks white to look like real brick.

Fleur-de-lis

• The fleur-de-lis is French and represents perfection, beauty and life. The design is a dramatic depiction of a lily blooming between two lily leaves. Place a fleur-de-lis upon significant areas in a room or throughout the house. The main areas to place a raised stencil of a fleur-de-lis is on rectangular or square wall sections that separate rooms, such as over doorways, along hallway ceiling trim, or at the top corners of adjoining rooms.

Children's Rooms

• Adding plaster stencil scenes from children's favorite stories, such as "Beauty and the Beast" or "Cinderella" for girls or "Spider-Man" and other superheroes for boys. These raised story pieces not only add dimension to the room, but also add a plaything for the children to create new stories and use their imaginations. By using the raised stencils of the child's favorite characters, the child can feel the character is coming to life rather than just being a painting.