Use A Christmas Stencil For Your Next Holiday Decor DIY Project!

Happy Holidays! Cutting Edge Stencils understands that shopping for Christmas decor and Christmas gifts can feel overwhelming at times. This year substitute shopping time with crafting time! Cutting Edge Stencils has a variety of Christmas stencils that can be used on any surface to create the perfect holiday decor! Use a Christmas craft stencil to personalize decor to match your home or save money and stencil a special gift for someone close to you. We’re going to show you how to upcycle an old serving tray into a your new favorite Christmas staple!

Materials Used For This Stenciled Christmas Serving Tray

• Outdated Crate & Barrel Tray
• 220 Grit Sandpaper
• Denatured Alcohol
• Christmas Ornaments Craft Stencil (size small)
• 4 Pc. Professional Stencil Brush Kit
• Benjamin Moore’s Navajo White (flat sheen)
• Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint – Burgundy
• Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint – Kelly Green
• My Studio Acrylic Craft Paint – Red
• Modern Masters – Pale Gold Metallic Paint
• Martha Stewart – Blackened Iron Metallic Paint

Preparation Before Painting With A Christmas Stencil

The first step of upcycling an outdated piece is to break the sheen of the old finish. This will help your paint stick to the surface! Give your serving tray a light sand allover with 220 grit sandpaper.

Next, remove any dust that might have accumulated from sanding the tray. You can dust it off with a brush and wipe it down denatured alcohol. Not only will denatured alcohol remove the dust, it can remove grease, oil, furniture polish or anything that might be on this old finish!

Now we are ready to base coat! We wanted our Christmas craft stencil to POP on the surface of our tray, so we decided to base coat the tray in white! We are using Benjamin Moore’s Navajo White in a flat sheen. You can apply the paint with a dense foam roller for stenciling or a 2″ nylon brush.

Next, apply repositionable spray adhesive to the back of the Christmas craft stencil. This will help your craft stencil stick to the surface and reduce your chances of paint seepage under the stencil. To avoid harmful chemicals in your system, please spray it in a well ventilated area.

Next, measure your surface you are stenciling and place the Christmas craft stencil in the center. Our serving tray isn’t perfectly symmetrical so we eyeballed the center and placed the Christmas craft stencil where it looked best!

Time To Stencil Your Christmas Design!

Find the perfect size stencil brush that works best for your Christmas craft stencil! Dip the tip of the brush for stenciling into your acrylic paint. Pallet the brush on a paper plate, really working the paint into the bristles. Offload excess paint onto a paper towel. There should be very little paint on your stencil brush!

Our Christmas ornaments stencil is beautifully designed featuring several unique motifs within the ornaments. When adding multiple colors to the ornaments, try to work carefully around the small openings so no paint goes in unwanted areas. PRO TIP: To avoid getting paint in unwanted areas, use low tack blue painter’s tape to cover certain openings!

Now more than ever, people are shopping at small businesses and handcrafting their own gifts! Craft stencils are the perfect way to customize a gift for a special someone in your life!

Protect Your Stenciled Christmas Design

We will be using our stenciled tray to serve sweet treats & delicious drinks this season! To ensure the stenciled Christmas design doesn’t get damaged, we are going to seal it! We recommend sealing it with Varathane’s waterbased polyurethane. Apply 2 coats of sealer with a 2″ nylon brush.

Can’t get enough of Cutting Edge Stencils:

• Check out our Cutting Edge Stencils Facebook Page to see our beautiful customer photos and interact with the people who created them! 
• Buy our Tile Stencils or Wall Stencils for your next stencil project, and browse our other wonderful stencil designs
• Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest and share your designs using #CuttingEdgeStencils. We love seeing your projects!
• Feeling inspired? Check out our other Blog posts for more inspo and stencil designs!

Thanks for reading and happy stenciling!