Stenciled Sandcastle Plate – Free Template

[Savvy Nana]

As many of you know by now my ongoing project is to re-decorate my guest bathroom. I think this is the third re-do since we bought the house 13 years ago. Not bad really, but each time I’ve redone it I change the color scheme and theme completely. The last theme was I suppose rain forest and featured shades of green, I can’t recall what the previous decor was only that it was black and red. This time we’re going with the beach theme, don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner! But again a new color scheme, thank goodness we went with neutral tones when repainted the house interior last year!

This time I’m determined to make most of the decor, a great way to put that Cricut Explore Air electronic cutting machine my husband gave me last year to work. So far I’ve made a Beach sign for my planning party, stenciled glass vase, upcycled an old florist vase, and made a shell and ting ting arrangement. I needed more stuff!

Sandcastle Plate I found a couple of designer ceramic plates at TJMaxx the other month, they were marked down from $22.99 to $2.50. A bargain and I just had to have them. Now it was time to use one of them, it would work perfectly for my theme. So I made this Stenciled Sandcastle Plate. It would sit perfectly on top of the shelf unit over the toilet! (I stenciled that too!)

This cute plate ended up costing me just the price of the plate, $2.50! I cut out the stencil on my Cricut and used Folk Art Enamel paint left over from a different project. I just love craft paint, each bottle is so inexpensive and goes a long way!

I love the way the plate turned out and I’m so excited to share it with you!

You can download the free stencil template by clicking here!

If you have a cutting machine:

Download the jpg template and save it on your desktop.
Upload the template to your cutting machine app, like Cricut Design Space if you’re using the Cricut Explore.
Re-size the template in your app if you need to.
Cut the stencil on your machine.

If you don’t have a cutting machine:

Download the jpg template and save it on your desktop.
If you need to re-size it upload the template to a photo editing app like Photoshop or to Picmonkey.com a free online photo editor.
Print template.

Cut out images and letters with a craft knife.

Supplies:

sandcastle plateCeramic or glass plate

Enamel Craft Paint – be sure you use enamel paint so it will stick to the plate

Stencil

Stencil Brush

Rubbing Alcohol

Paper Towels – fold several sheets together to make them thicker

How To:

Wipe the plate surface with rubbing alcohol and let dry.
Position stencil in the center of the plate.

Fill in the letters and images with paint :

A. Dip brush in paint

B. Holding the brush perpendicular (straight up) to the paper towel dab it on the towel in a circular motion until most of the paint is off the brush. You want a “dry” brush, not one dripping with paint.

C. Holding the paint perpendicular to the plate and working from the edge of the stencil towards the middle, fill in the letters and images in a circular motion. When you start you will have paint half on the stencil and half on the plate. Continue these steps until you’ve filled in all the images and letters.

4. Gently lift the stencil off the plate as soon as you’ve stenciled in the last letter. Don’t let the paint dry with the stencil on. Lift the stencil straight up to avoid smudging.

5. Let the paint dry over night before curing it. There are 2 ways to cure – the first is to let the paint cure for 21 days – basically you can’t get it wet. Or follow the next steps

6. Place plate in to a cold oven.

7. Set oven temperature to 350 degrees.

8. When the oven has reached the correct temperature set your timer for 30 minutes.

9. When timer rings turn off the oven and let plate cool inside.

sandcastle plateOnce your plate is cooled it’s good to go. The stenciled paint is dishwasher safe, but you can not put food directly on the painted surface.