Evidently, both @Manu biscotti decorati and I have had beach cabanas on the brain! 
While her recent cabana cookies were inspired by modern neon-colored huts in a beachfront area of Dubai, mine take after the time-worn boathouses and lobstering shacks that have dotted the coastline of Maine (my home away from home) for decades, if not centuries. I've even "distressed" some of the beach hut siding (top right, photo below) to make it look more weathered and authentically New England! But, more on that technique in a bit!
Let's talk first about what I'm releasing this month:
As always, this month's release includes three new sets/stencils and one reminder:
- Beach Cabana Dynamic Duos™ Background Set (upper left),
- Beach Cabana Dynamic Duos™ Message and Frame Set (combined with the Duos™ background set; upper right),
- My partner Confection Couture's Salty Air Accent Stencil (lower right), and for that reminder . . .
- Seas the Day Dynamic Duos™ Bundled Set (First released around this time last year, this set was inspired by my collection of Penobscot Bay maritime maps that litter my Maine house - or did anyway, before I started a gut-remodel of it, which is still ongoing . . . but that's another story for another day . . . 😂).
And what do Stencil of the Month Club members get this month?! They get both my Beach Cabana Dynamic Duos™ Background Set and Confection Couture's Salty Air Accent Stencil. This specially curated bundle is worth $22.99, but Club members get it for only $14.99! Plus, they also get 15% off anything else on the Confection Couture site, as long as their membership is in effect! What a deal, right?! Because a picture is worth a thousand words, take a peek below at what I just said:
I'm partial to these Duos™ sets because they offer SO many options for layering elements in fun ways . . . beach umbrellas can be inserted into the sand; surfboards and oars can be leaned up against the boathouse or fence; a beach bag can be tucked under the umbrella . . . and on and on. But rather than talk about all these options, let me show you some of what's possible with just the background set! Also, a heads-up: I'll be releasing a video in a few weeks about these sets, so if you don't catch all of their nuances here, please watch my YouTube channel for that video.
Beach Cabana Dynamic DuosTM Background Set (7 pieces)
Below are just two of the many designs you can make with only the background set. (I also used it to create the fondant beach bag, surfboards, and oars that you see standing on their own in the sugar "sand".)
The cookie below shows a relatively simple use of the background set . . . a surfboard mask was placed on top of the background stencil with the hut; the background was airbrushed in multiple colors; and then the surfboards were sprayed in a simple royal blue. In short, everything was airbrushed directly onto the cookies. You could make it even simpler by reducing the number of colors, but I really wanted each of the elements in the background stencil (i.e., hut, fence, sand, grass, and sky) to stand out, and using distinct colors for many of the elements certainly helped to accomplish that goal.
(Aside: The colors used were Chefmaster Super Red for the cabana walls; AmeriMist Sky Blue for the roof, cabana bottom, and first pass at the sky and clouds; a custom mix of AmeriMist Royal Blue and Violet to make a truer royal/navy blue for the flag and lifesaver on the door; a light misting of AmeriMist Black to shade the clouds and sky; Chefmaster Harvest Brown for the fence; a custom mix of Chefmaster Harvest Brown and Lemon Yellow for the golden sand; and AmeriMist Avocado for the beach grass. Phew! That should be seven colors if I counted right! )
And here's a closer view of all of those colors . . .
Now, this second design is a touch more complex, because it involves the same number of colors, plus airbrushing directly on the cookie and making separate dimensional elements (using the same background stencil) to layer on top.
Here, the surfboard was made by airbrushing onto flat fondant, cutting out the surfboard shape, and allowing it to dry flat. The umbrella was done much the same way except that it was shaped and propped so that it dried with a nice umbrella-like curve. The beach ball is an airbrushed and stenciled royal icing transfer. Since my upcoming video will cover all of the finer points of these embellishments, I won't belabor them now. Let's instead move on to the complementary message and frame set, which includes the following seven pieces . . .
Beach Cabana Dynamic DuosTM Message and Frame Set (7 pieces)
So many message and frame permutations are possible, and, remember, they can be applied directly to cookies as shown in the first two images below . . .
Or they can be airbrushed and stenciled onto separate royal icing or fondant transfers, and then placed almost anywhere on your cookies (even extending off of them, as I like to do!) . . .
Oh, before I forget . . . about that "distressing" effect I mentioned at the top of this post: you can see it on the red hut's siding, directly above, and also on the blue hut two photos up. Again, this technique will be demonstrated in my upcoming video, but I basically "age" the siding by spraying solidly in one bright color (in these cases, red or sky blue) and then shading the boards with a light airbrushing of black, concentrating that black along the edges of the hut to more sharply define its boundaries.
And, with this final photo (showing distressed and un-distressed huts side by side) and my usual recap of key links, I conclude this month's release! Hopefully, these sets have left you with plenty of inspiration for your upcoming summertime fêtes. Hey, that rhymes!
- To purchase my Dynamic Duos™ sets, click here.
- To join my Stencil of the Month Club, click here.
- To see my entire stencil line, including my Prettier Plaques™ sets, click 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, just email me at sweetlife@juliausher.com or 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!
ADDENDUM - AUGUST 16, 2019
I just released an instructional video to YouTube about this set. Check it out below!
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