How-to: Dimensional stenciling

I made minimal progress over the weekend, and my "how-to" is going to be a bit lame as my husband was holed up with office work all weekend so I had to man the camera myself and I don't even know how to use that timer doohickey so I was snapping with one hand while the other was attempting to demonstrate.  (In addition to dimensional stenciling, I can do a mean run-on sentence, eh?)

For dimensional stenciling on walls, I always use this stuff...

The numbers on the bag indicate the working time once it has been mixed with water, and it comes in 5, 20, 45, 90 and 210 versions.  You do NOT want to use the 20 I have pictured - that means you only have twenty minutes from the time it's mixed until it turns into a hard, unworkable mass of (sheet)rock.   The instructions on the bag indicate that you are supposed to add the powder to your water rather than vice versa, and I've heard/read that doing the opposite leads to dry clumps in the mix, but I've never had that problem and find it a lot easier to add water to the powder.   Mix up a small amount at a time, because it goes a long way.  I mixed up about 16 ounces (measured in a liquid measuring cup) at a time, with roughly 2/3 - 3/4 cup of water.  This can vary a lot, however.  For instance, for my first batch I used the bag of 20 minute stuff simply because it was already open, and I needed half as much water as I did when I switched over to the new bag of 90 minute mix.  I assume that's because it was a very humid day and since the bag was already open it had sucked up some of the moisture from the atmosphere.  Moving along...

Using an electric mixer to incorporate your water really helps to insure you don't have the dry clumping.  You want the consistency to be pretty stiff at first...

As you can see, it's definitely stiff - that's what you want at first, because you're now going to wait 60 seconds to allow the powder to fully absorb your water, then check it and add more water if necessary - but you're not supposed to add more powder after this point.  I found it was still quite workable after 60 seconds, so I left it alone.  One huge benefit to leaving it as dry as possible, while still workable, is that it's going to dry on the wall much more quickly.  Since you're going to have to wait for one run of stenciling to set up a bit before going next to it with another, cutting down on that dry-time is going to speed things up considerably.  

As for the stencils themselves, there are stencils made specifically for dimensional stenciling and they're much thicker than regular stencils.   This allows not only for more build-up, but the stencil itself is less likely to move or tear, so I strongly recommend using the right stencil for the job.  Both  Victoria Larsen and Royal Design Studio have several to choose from.  The one other tool you'll need is a trowel of some sort.  I used these...

which I picked up at a SALI (now IDAL) convention several years ago.  Any trowel/spatula will do though.  These are flexible, which I prefer, but I've used rigid ones with the same results.  Having curved edges is very helpful as it minimizes the problem of lines being formed in the plaster by sharp corners.  

Now, choose where you want to start...

I want some leaves attached to this branch...

But I just wanted the lower grouping of leaves on the far left, so I tried to trowel just over those parts...

It's a bit hard to see in my bad photos, but most of the leaves on this stencil have small little pointy bits that dissect the leaf in the center.  To avoid lifting and bending them, I troweled from the bottom of the grouping and then upwards to the outer tips of the leaves.  

Now that the portion I want on the tree is plastered over, I can lift the stencil off...

and as you can see, there are bits of plaster there that I don't want.  This is why dimensional stenciling with drywall mud is so much more user-friendly than painted stenciling:  It wipes right off!   

I was able to wipe these bits off immediately, but sometimes you're going to get a goof that is too close to what you want left alone, so let it dry thoroughly and then wipe if off with a damp rag.  Drywall mud is also super easy to sand, so you'll want to have some sandpaper to knock down any very rough ridges that are formed, but you can also do a lot of "sanding" simply with a damp rag and it doesn't create nearly the mess that sanding does.  I went over the entire tree with a damp rag to just smooth things out and it took me less than thirty minutes for all six trees.  

Going back a bit, see that "highly textured" bit of trunk right next to where the branch meets it in the second-to-last photo?  That happened because I tried to build my tree too fast and the lower portion of the trunk's plaster hadn't dried sufficiently.  Honestly, I don't think it's going to be noticeable in the end, so I'm not going to worry about it.  If you're more anal than I, it could easily be filled in with more plaster after it's thoroughly dry.  

A few other thoughts on dimensional stenciling:  If I were doing cabinetry or furniture, I'd use something tougher than drywall mud.  

For my fireplace mantel, I used Liquitex Modeling Paste, which is much harder when dry, but also impossible to simply wipe off with a damp rag when dry, and much more resistant to sanding.  Those are good qualities in a piece of furniture, because you want it to stand up to abuse.  With something as sprawling as these trees though, being able to go back in and "edit" is of greater importance to me.  For instance, there's a grouping of leaves I added that is going to interfere with the cornices I have planned for the windows.  No problem, a wet rag and a few minutes time and it'll be history.  After it's painted the drywall mud stencil becomes much more permanent, so be sure to go in and do all of your editing before that point.  

I'll leave you with a shot of my (almost) completed trees.  I still need to do quite a bit of painting (obviously!), and I still need a bit more of the leaves trailing onto the ceiling, but it's getting there...

Looking at this, I can't stress enough that oft-times "less is more" really, really applies to this art.  I was actually much happier with my trees on Friday night than I was after adding more leaves on Saturday. The trees had a much less 'cutesy' feel to them than they do now - they were more stark and artistic somehow.  On the other hand, and regardless of how easy it is to edit things out, it's not "off" enough that I dislike it so this is probably it.  

I hope this little "how-to" has inspired you to give dimensional stenciling a try.  I was really surprised at how little I found in the way of how-tos via a google search, and not a single video turned up.  I'll rectify that sometime after the first of the year with a video of my own.  If I can figure out how to work the video doohickey on my camera.