Stencilled Bears...

About a month ago in Ikea, I saw a set of wooden plaques with simple prints of a bear, a moose and some other animal that I can't recall right now.  I really liked the bear one but wasn't so keen on the other two, not enough to buy the set anyway.  I knew that with a bit of effort I could make my own version...so I did. 

I bought some wooden flooring samples from B&Q, and Mr. B kindly smoothed off the edges of them for me.  I found some side view photos of bears that I liked and used them to sketch out my stencil onto some thick watercolour paper the same size as the wood.  When I was happy with the outline, I carefully cut out the stencil using a scalpel.  This was slow and painstaking as I did not want to make a mess of those spikes of fur!

I then tried out the stencil on some paper using black acrylic paint.  This also serves the purpose of sealing the edges of the stencil as it dries.  After checking that all was how I wanted it, I then stencilled the bears onto the wooden plaques.  Once the stencilling was dry, I then painted the back and sides of the plaque with the black acrylic, smudging the edges around the front with my finger to create a slightly 'aged' look.  I rummaged around in my various supply boxes and found a couple of brass hanging thingies, nailed them on and ta-dah!  I'm very pleased with these - one is for me, the other will go in my Etsy shop once I have taken some better photos.