Julia's May Stencil Release - Summer Fun!

If you saw the following photo from my recent teaching trip to the Dominican Republic, you might think it's what inspired this month's stencil release.

But, as striking as the above view is, I actually started designing my May stencil sets several months ago, and my inspiration for them came from a series of vintage vacation posters. I wanted a design that departed from my usual elegant botanicals, and captured those posters' bold, graphic look . . . something that would be fun and allow for an explosive use of vibrant color . . . basically something that screamed retro summer! And this is where I landed . . .

• My Day at the Beach Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set (upper left),
• My Day at the Beach Dynamic Duos^TM Message and Frame Set (combined with the Duos^TM background set in the upper right),
• My partner Confection Couture's Bikini Basic Accent Stencil (lower right), and
• My Summer Fun Prettier Plaques^TM Set (a reminder of a previously released summer-themed set, in the lower left).

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

Not familiar with my Club? In a nutshell, 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. If you're not sure you're ready to take the leap into the Club, you can still get savings through bundled purchases on the site, like the bundled offering on this month's Duos^TM sets, to the side of this page and this page.

Now, let's look a little more closely at what's in each of my Duos^TM sets, and how they can be used on real-life cookies. First . . .

Day at the Beach Dynamic Duos^TM Background Set (6 pieces)

As you may have noticed, this set contains more pieces (and more value!) than usual. Instead of the typical one or two foreground elements, it's got three beach umbrellas, ranging from about 3/4 inch to 1 1/4 inches in diameter, which can be used one at a time or all together in any combination of positions and colors. Here's an example of how I used these elements:

Of course, I could have stenciled everything directly onto the royal icing base coats, but I wanted to add a little extra dimension and whimsy. So I airbrushed and stenciled some palm trees and umbrellas onto wafer paper, mounted them onto frosting sheets (so they wouldn't be as see-through), cut out the shapes, and then stuck them on tiny balls of fondant on top of the cookies to give them some "lift". You could also do the same thing using thin sheets of fondant or modeling chocolate instead of the edible papers, which, in retrospect, I should have done for better flavor. Or you could make royal icing transfers in umbrella shapes and then airbrush the pattern on top of the transfers, as I did with the dimensional Easter eggs in one of my previous sets. (For that egg video, click here.) Now, here are some closer views of these details . . .

As for colors, I did, in fact, try to mimic the gorgeous teal Caribbean Sea pictured at the top of this post! My cookie sea was a blend of Sky Blue and the residual Leaf Green left in the airbrush after finishing the palm trees, simply applied at close range to get the darker areas and then at a distance for the lighter blue. The sand was also a custom mix - Lemon Yellow with lots of white and a hint of Harvest Brown. The rest of the colors came straight from coloring containers: Electric Green and Leaf Green for the palm fronds; and Super Red, Sunset Orange, and Royal Blue for the beach umbrellas. All colorings were from AmeriColor/AmeriMist, except for the brown, red, and orange, which were from Chefmaster.

Now, let's look at the complementary Duos^TM message and frame set. It too is unusually generous this month with seven pieces! It's got two more messages and masks than the typical message and frame set. And you know what this means?! Yes, even more versatility!

Day at the Beach Dynamic Duos^TM Message and Frame Set (7 pieces)


I've used just two of the messages and frames below, but they all look equally good!

Here's a slightly closer look:

Lastly, remember: you needn't stick to the messages and frames in this pack. For instance, the message and frame from my Summer Fun Prettier Plaques^TM set could look very cute on this background too. Or, you could have your own message stencil made, as I did for my recent demos at SoFlo Cake & Candy Expo, and create a totally customized look:

BTW, if you didn't know, my partner Confection Couture Stencils makes custom stencils too. Check out this page on their site where you can upload your artwork and other desired specs, and then they'll return an estimate.

And, with one last idyllic beach scene and a recap of key links, I conclude this month's release! I hope you enjoyed it!

• 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!