Julia's April Stencil Release!

My April stencil release is here, and, as I promised last month, it takes the cake! But don't get me wrong . . . I don't mean this in any self-congratulatory kind of way - I mean this quite literally!

As you'll see, the release features two Dynamic Duos^TM sets with fun tiered cakes that can be used on their own, with messages, or with festive floral party garlands. The messages also make the sets adaptable to so many occasions - weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Day . . . heck, just about any event where you might serve cake! As always, I've got some other goodies this month too. Here's the pictorial of the entire release:

• My Take the Cake Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set (upper left),
• My Take the Cake Dynamic Duos^TM Message and Frame Set (combined with the Duos^TM background set in the upper right),
• My partner Confection Couture's Ornamental Floral Basic Accent Stencil (lower right), and
• The background and message from my Mother Wishes Prettier Plaques^TM Set combined with the frame from my Give Thanks Prettier Plaques^TM Set (reminders of previously released sets, in the lower left).

If you're in my Stencil of the Month Club, this month you'll get both my Take the Cake Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set and Confection Couture's Ornamental Floral Basic Accent Stencil - a $22.99 value for only $14.99 (plus 15% off anything else on the Confection Couture site)! Need a visual of this? Here you go:

Not familiar with my Club? I won't go into all of the details now. Suffice it to say, it offers regular monthly savings of the magnitude mentioned above. If your interest is piqued, please read all of the details and learn how to sign up here.  

Now, onto some ways for using this month's Duos^TM sets. All of the following pics make use of the same eye-popping Lilly Pulitzer-palette of bright pink and green, with a little gold (in the garlands) and brown (in the cakes, messages, and frames) to keep the look "grounded". Specifically, I used AmeriMist Deep Pink for the flower, AmeriMist Electric Green and Avocado Green for the leaves, AmeriMist Gold Sheen for the garlands, and Chefmaster Harvest Brown for the rest. (You might be wondering why I didn't go AmeriMist all the way? That's easy - their browns aren't as rich and chocolate-y as this Chefmaster brown, and chocolate-y is exactly what this set calls for, don't you think?! )

Before we look at how this palette worked with the background set, here's a quick overview of this set's elements:

Take the Cake Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set (5 pieces)

And, here's the result of applying this set in the palette just described:

Of course, almost any other palette could work, though I do have a couple of general coloring tips that are worth noting. First, to keep the overall design balanced, repeat the same color in different areas of the cookie. So, for instance, on the cookies shown above, I balanced the pops of green in the leaves with green background shading behind cakes and/or with a stylized green "tabletop". The latter (see bottoms of two rightmost cookies) was done as a last step by blocking off most of those cookies with my Quadrant Masking Tool, and then spraying the exposed area at the bottom with AmeriMist Electric Green. As for the second tip: you'll get the clearest results if you spray a dark color through the cake stencils onto lightly shaded cake backgrounds, as I did here with the brown on top of light pink and green. If you spray light on dark, you'll get more color blending (especially if using water-based colorings like AmeriMist) and a muddy-ish look.

Now, mind you, I showed the garland and one or more cakes on all cookies, but you could also simplify the stenciling process and create faster, but still sweet designs. Just use the garland stencil alone on a cookie, or a cake or two alone on a cookie with a plain background. Trust me, both options look darling, and the stenciling goes lickety-split.

Enough on the background set! Let's look at the second Duos^TM set released this month, which includes these elements:

Take the Cake Dynamic Duos^TM Message and Frame Set (5 pieces)

As always, this set has been designed to work seamlessly with the background set, but it can also be used by itself to add framed messages to any cookie, with any background or even none at all!

Here's how it looks, as intended, with different message and frame permutations on top of this month's background set:

And here's a last and closer view of both Duos^TM sets in action . . .

Pretty sweet - and also as versatile as can be - if I do say so myself!

And on that self-congratulatory note , I bring this release to a close! I hope you enjoy my April stencils!

For more in-depth instruction about creating layered looks with stencils, please see my full-length narrated videos in this playlist on my YouTube channel. Note: While all of the above cookies are airbrushed, royal icing works well with these stencils too. However, if doing a layered look, royal icing typically must be applied as the last layer in the last step.

• To purchase my Dynamic Duos^TM sets, click here.
• To join my Stencil of the Month Club, click here.
• To see my entire stencil line, including my Prettier Plaques^TM sets, click here.

If you have any technical questions about these stencils, please don't hesitate to email me at sweetlife@juliausher.com or to leave a comment below. Please, however, direct all ordering and Club questions to my stencil partner, Confection Couture Stencils, at service@confectioncouturestencils.com. Thank you!