CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--STENCILED SNOWFLAKE TRIVET

Sick of snow yet? If you’re stuck in the house from yet another snowstorm, why not make a snow-inspired craft? I first featured these stenciled trivets back in 2011. Since we’ve had so many new blog followers over the past three years, I thought I’d repeat one of my favorite easy projects.

Materials:

8” x 10” plastic stencil sheet, permanent ink marker, X-acto knife with new blade,

repositionable adhesive, 7” round cork trivets, stencil paint in your choice of color(s), stencil brush, clear satin acrylic spray

1. Enlarge the snowflake pattern to 6”. Tape to underside of plastic stencil sheet. Using permanent ink marker, trace pattern onto stencil sheet.

2. Carefully cut out snowflake. If you make a mistake while cutting, you can repair the stencil plastic with tape and recut. When you’re finished you’ll have two stencils, one a positive image of the snowflake and one a negative image.

3.  Apply repositionable adhesive to the back of the stencils. Allow to dry.

4. Place stencil centered over cork trivet.

5.  To stencil, dip the tip of the stencil brush into the stencil paint. Remove excess paint by tapping the brush onto a folded paper towel. Hold the brush perpendicular to the stencil and dab the brush in an up and down motion over the cutout edges of the negative snowflake stencil and around the cut edges of the positive snowflake stencil.

6. When stenciling is complete, carefully lift the stencil from cork. Allow the paint to dry 24 hours.

7. Spray surface of stenciled cork with two coats of clear satin acrylic.

Tie together a set of two, one positive image and one negative image, with natural raffia to give as a hostess gift whenever you’re invited for dinner or to a party throughout the winter. Everyone always needs a couple of extra trivets, right?