How to Stencil With Cookie Cutters

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By Kelly Metz
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Child's Table & Chair, Painted & Stenciled With Cookie Cutters

Before you cart off that worn out old furniture to the thrift store, consider giving it new life with a fresh coat of paint and your own custom-design! Stenciling is a fun and popular way to decorate. Here is a twist on stenciling, using cookie cutters to stamp the design outline.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Table, book case, TV stand, or anything you'd like to paint.
Cookie cutters in desired shapes.
Acrylic paint.
Paint Brushes.
Optional: spouncers.

Step 1

Clean the item you want to paint, and sand off rough edges or loose paint if needed. Vinegar is a great cleaning agent that will get rid of any oil or grime that might prevent your paint from sticking.
Step 2

Base coat your object with all one color, or choose 2 colors. They may be 2 of the same color in different hues (i.e. light blue and dark blue) or 2 contrasting colors. (i.e. purple and green, red and blue, blue and yellow, etc...) In the example shown, a child's table and chair were base coated with green paint for the legs, and yellow for the top.
Step 3

After the base coat dries, the fun begins. Decide what pattern you want to put on your project. Start by looking through your cookie cutters for ideas. You can also get ideas from exploring free project samples on craft web-sites, or perhaps perusing cookie cutter shapes at a store with a wide variety to choose from. In the example pictured above, three cookie cutter shapes were used: A dragon fly, a flower and a circle.
Step 4

Dragonfly Design

After you have chosen your cookie cutters and planned your design placement, you are ready to begin stenciling or stamping away. Squeeze out a puddle of acrylic paint in the desired color. Dip your cookie cutter in the puddle, making sure all the edges are colored. Stamp your cookie cutter onto your project in the desired location. Be sure to set the cookie cutter straight down, then lift straight up to avoid smudging the edges. If you do make a mistake, just wipe it off with a damp cloth and do it over. After your shapes are stamped on, you may choose to leave them as open outlines, as in the flower examples here, or you may choose to fill in the outline, as was done with these dragonflies. In this design, the flowers were stamped in blue with red circles for the center. The dragonflies were stamped in dark purple, then filled in with light green and light purple.
Step 5

After completing your cookie cutter designs, you may add some whimsical polka-dots to your design if desired. In this example, orange polka-dots were added using a 3/4" spouncer.
Step 6

When your project is totally dry, finish with an acrylic sealer. Be creative and have fun!