Hi Chelone! ( and anyone else who might want to give raised stencils a try!) I first saw LJ's raised stencils on her TV show about 12 years ago and went about pricing the 'raised stencil paste'. I think the price quadrupled back then because it was a relatively new idea for the DIYer and it had the words 'raised stencil paste' on the little 14 oz. bucket. I was determined. But I was broke. I did have a 2 gal. bucket of wall/joint compound/ wall patch. (Not the whipped. Don't use the whipped. Ask me how I know this. *giggle*) I bought a regular stencil at Michael's of a full Wisteria vine (I think it was wisteria) for $2.99 and cut it up because I only wanted the leaves. In our garage I had one of those plasticky "no parking" signs, 12" x 12". I placed the cut pieces of Wisteria stencil on the thicker plastic sign, traced, cut out using exacto knife and I had my thicker and sturdier stencil. That process worked for me for awhile (I admit, I got raised stencil happy) but got too time consuming with the cutting out of the thicker stencil on the No Parking Signs ( $2.98). I went searching and found Victoria's web site (when she first started). She hadn't started advertising her raised stencils, only regular and 2, 3, 4 & 5 layer stencils. But the difference with her regular stencils was the thickness. So I ordered one of her stencils, tried it on the apron of my M. bathroom sink vanity and I really liked the thickness of the stencil and the quality. When Victoria Larsen first started out, her site was a whole two pages big. She has grown! She now has the raised stencils which are a little thicker and the design and the galleries on her site are fabulous! I no longer visit her site as often as I used to because we are in the process of DIY redos, five rooms at the same time, but I do visit (and purchase) if I want just a touch of something, somewhere. My latest: We used an old piece of granite on a few cinder blocks locked together and covered in cement. Turned the cinder blocks into a very sturdy little bench/granite seat out back. The cinder block, even though had the texture of the cement (dyed) was still missing something. I am in the process of adding a raised stencil to the base part of the bench--- trailing vines stencil I purchased at V.L. middle of summer. About the softer look with light sanding when the raised plaster is dry. Below is a pic of a dried raised stencil. See the edges? That's what I didn't like when I first started doing Raised stencil. So I used my nail file or my small square buffing nail file and then some water on my finger to soften the edges. Just in my case, I like the softer edges of the raised stencils. Others might like the crisper edges and leave them alone. Get yourself your favorite beverage and plan on staying awhile because this site is addicting and I can literally spend hours looking at the galleries and ideas sent in to VL by her loyal customers. No, other than a few emails over the years when I had questions about a particular stencil, I don't know this woman nor do I have any vested interest in her website other than finding some good quality stencils with great customer service. She is also selling on Ebay now but I haven't compared her prices there. Sharp, dried edges of leaves.

Thank you all for your compliments! I've never used a stencil before, and it is a little tricky--the paint has to be fairly thick and drier, and you have to make sure the stencil is pushed tight against the surface or the paint oozes underneath and it looks blurry. diymadness: "...A couple of questions. What do you have on your floor? And -- did you put the wood right on top of the stucco ceiling or did you rip down the existing ceiling first? The reason I'm asking is that I have a seventies-style popcorn ceiling in my living room that was damaged by a leaky roof. So I need to do something about it. I've thought about t-and-g pine because I like it in the kitchen. but I'm wondering if I can just put it over the existing ceiling. Also, I have a hardwood floor in my livingroom, so I worry it would be too much wood..." Well, heh-heh, we haven't touched the floor yet other than to remove several layers of old flooring right after we moved in. It is concrete now and looks HORRIBLE!!!! That's the next big job in there, and we're hoping to tile it but due to the fact that it's a hallway that developed *between* the original portion of the house and the 1926 addition when remodeling occurred, it has a very strong, strange slope from the back of the hall to the front and we'll have to deal with leveling it out first. The kitchen and front room floors are even with the laundry hall floor, but on the other side of the hall my office floor is up a small step about 2 or 3 inches! So if we level the laundry floor, it will be higher than the kitchen and den, but lower or even with my office!! What to do-? At any rate, about the ceiling: we had to completely demo the stucco ceiling, even though I really like stucco and wanted to salvage it if I could. But it was simply too damaged, and it is thick and HEAVY! It likely would have been far too much weight/thickness to put the pine T & G over the old stucco, and absolutely rock hard, so attaching the pine would have been a bear. We essentially rebuilt the hall ceiling substructure to strengthen it, and then put the T & G over that. Incidentally, we had to raise the ceiling a few inches in the front half of the hall back to its original height--hence the stenciled area and the moulding. They mask the transition where we added a strip of new drywall to increase the wall/ceiling height. In your case I'd want to know if your ceiling leaks had compromised any of the ceiling joists and other structural elements. There is also the weight issue: can the ceiling support the weight of T & G pine? If so, then I see no reason why you couldn't put it over the popcorn, provided the popcorn texture isn't so heavy that it would create an uneven surface and interfere with fitting the T & G boards tightly together.

Stencils 3 Sleigh 2 3/4 x 2 3/4" To and From 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" Fireplace 3 1/8" X 2 1/2" Rest are 3 1/4" X 2 1/4" Image link:

I have used Annie Sloan chalk paint and love it, and I've also used latex. I don't use poly as I don't care for the look. I have used BriWax that I had on hand in both light and dark brown for my projects and it's very protective. Are you stenciling a design directly on the (assuming) wood grain table top, or are you painting the table and then stenciling? On this recent project, I used Ben Moore Symphony Blue latex paint and little jars of acrylic metallic craft paint for the gold fleur de lis. It has the light and dark wax on it for an antique look, in keeping with the age of the piece. I might save the chalk paint for an item you use without feeling you need to poly it, as it has such a 'soft' look on its own that is very nice. See the difference in the blue paint color once the dark wax is used? Only the drawer fronts have been waxed in the pic, and all the rest of the blue is just the paint at that point.