Julia's August Stencil Release - Along Came a Spider!

I bet you're thinking, "EEK! How is it possible we're already talking about Halloween cookies?! Wasn't it just January?!" Yes, fall cookie deadlines are definitely creeping up on us, but please put aside any fear . . . I'm about to equip you with a couple of new stencil sets, out of which you can get lots of spook-tacular Halloween designs!

• Along Came a Spider Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set (upper left),
• Along Came a Spider Dynamic Duos^TM Message and Frame Set (combined with the Duos^TM background set in the upper right),
• My partner Confection Couture's After Midnight Basic Accent Stencil (lower right), and
• My Pumpkin Patch Prettier Plaques^TM Set (a reminder of one of my previously released - and favorite - fall sets, in the lower left).

Of course, my partner and I have launched several other Halloween and fall-themed stencils over the last year or so. You can find all of them here and here.

If you're in my Stencil of the Month Club, this month you'll get both my Along Came a Spider Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set and Confection Couture's After Midnight Basic Accent Stencil - a $22.99 value for only $14.99. As long as you stay a member, you will also get 15% off anything else on the Confection Couture site! In a picture, here's what this month's offering looks like:

I'm partial to these Duos^TM sets, because they're a bit simpler and more forgiving than my typical designs, making them especially great for beginners. They look striking in just one or two colors, and even a little underspray on the spider web can look like a purposeful shadow! Plus, the normal shading stencils make perfect sense as shadows under the spiders. (Note: I will have a video showing the detailed use of these sets in a few weeks; for now, hopefully my words below will suffice.)

As usual, let's first look at the background set a bit more closely.

Along Came a Spider Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set (6 pieces)


As you can hopefully see, a simple combo of black and orange (or black and purple) looks stunning, perfectly Halloween-y, and totally complete . . .



You could do just the web without any spiders, one spider, two spiders, or all three! There's really that much flexibility. The one thing to note, though, is that the masking pieces for these spiders are smaller than most (there was just no way around this), so it's tough to fit my normal 3/8-inch and 1/2-inch magnets on top to weigh them down during airbrushing. But, again, have no fear . . . I usually just tape them onto the underlying background stencil (not the cookie) using a teeny bit of blue painter's tape. (Painter's tape is a must, because it comes off stencils very easily without risk of damaging delicate areas.)

The color that you see above was applied two ways: first, as a decisive shadow under each spider using the shading stencil, and, second, quite randomly with free-form spritzes of the airbrush.

These cookies can also make a fun presentation when laid out in an array . . .



Of course, it would have helped if I hadn't stuck that stray octagon in among the hexes, right?!  Now, onto layering messages on top using the complementary Along Came a Spider Message and Frame Set.

Along Came a Spider Dynamic Duos^TM Message and Frame Set (7 pieces)


What I like about this set is not only the range of message-frame options (some messages can be rotated and fit more than one frame), but also how the words span in style from whimsical (with "EEK!") to elegant (with "Trick or Treat" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"). I've shown just a couple of the many message and frame permutations below, again using the same two-color approach on each cookie:

And, here's a closer view . . .

Now, if you're a more-is-more person like me, there's nothing to prevent you from going crazier with these two sets. Below, I did them in three colors (red, black, and gray); added dimensional wafer paper bunting over the gray areas left by the shading stencil (to really simulate shadows); and piped dimensional royal icing Black Widow spiders on top of the spider shadows. All in all, this look is also fun, though definitely more involved. I'll refer you to my upcoming video for all of the details, including how to make the spider shadows two different ways!

A closer view . . .

And that's (nearly) a wrap! Before I leave you though, just two more things: (1) a reminder of another past fall fave (below, my Fall Foliage Prettier Plaques^TM Set) and (2) a roundup of all my key stencil and airbrush product links. Thanks for reading, and I hope you try some of my new stencils!

• 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.
• To purchase my new JULIA dual-action airbrush system, click here or here.
• To view my videos that show how to create layered looks with my stencil 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!