Stenciled Bangles

Once again I'm participating in the Craftaholics Anonymous Summer Gift Exchange. This time around I have been paired with a lovely mother of 4 from Tennessee. She is also a runner and will compete in her first half marathon this fall. While searching Pinterest for Inspirational Running Quotes I came up with an idea to make her something fashionable, fun, and running related.

A few months ago I Instagrammed this inspiration picture (via Real Simple) - follow me @mandyfarn. 

I looked for similar types of bangles at my favorite thrift stores, but only found a couple of smooth wooden bangles. While looking at quotes on Pinterest I recalled the bangles and thought it would be really cute to use my Silhouette Cameo to stencil "run and be happy" around one of the bangles and a pattern around the other.

First I cleaned sanded and primed the bangles. 

post cleaning and sanding 

Next I painted one a shade of pink Mystic Paint called Pretty Petals and the other a color called Iced Aqua. Both bangles required two coats of paint.

I used Silhouette Studio to layout my designs (measured to fit the height and circumference of the bangles)

After cutting out my designs in vinyl, I carefully transferred them to the bangles. Next, I painted a thin top coat in my base color (to seal the edges of the vinyl). Once it was dry I painted over the stencil with my second color. A warm grey called Calla Lilly (also Mystic Brand) on the blue and Iced Aqua over the pink. I did not paint the insides of the bangles.

The blue bangle has layer of paint over vinyl to seal the edges before the top coat,  pink does not. 

I let both bangles dry for a couple of hours before removing the stencil. As a final step I sealed both bracelets with a clear coat of poly spray. I did try to use the vinyl as a more traditional stencil (filling in the negative space of the stencil) but I couldn't get the letters or shapes to lay flat on the bracelets.

I love the soft color combinations and the hit of the base color that can be seen on the inside of the bangles. Wearing them together would be a bit much, but they work very well alone. Next time I might try spray paint or a thinner craft paint.

Both of these bracelets are going to my Summer Gift Exchange partner. I can't wait to make more - plus now I have an excuse to visit my favorite thrift stores.