When you’ve worn out your welcome!

It’s been a long time since I’ve made a “shoestring makeover” update!

The school library’s “WELCOME” mat had lost all of its signage due to four years of kids trampling in and out. With only an hour to spare, I cut some paper templates freehand and used three cans of spray enamel to create this new message. Final detailing with permanent black marker.

Week 22 Eyes II Eye love books

Paper templates in place, ready for the (first) white layer:

Week 22 Eyes II doormat template

The original mats in place on opening day, 2010:

Main doors

One thought on “When you’ve worn out your welcome!

  1. I surprised myself with my (over)confidence in doing this shoestring makeover project. I haven’t cut paper templates for stenciling in decades. Knowledge of symmetry was helpful. I did two doormats at once. I folded four sheets of A4 paper and cut a heart shape (no guidelines!), then removed two sheets and made their shape slightly larger, so I could spray a white undercoat and still add an inner red area, hopefully.

    For the book icon, two sheets were folded together and cut at once, then the centre pieces removed, trimmed at the sides and some lines cut into the middle to resemble text. This template produced red binding outline, white pages and blue-over-red text.

    The eye icon was cut by twice-folding four sheets together to remove a quarter circle. I decided after cutting that a lower lash wasn’t needed and I masked it off with tape. The corners of the eye and the eyelash were similarly masked off after the white undercoat was sprayed. Blue went on next, then the previously-removed shapes (with pupils removed) were unfolded to shield the blue iris while a red layer went on. With templates removed, some outlining was done with permanent marker.

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