Baby Crates: A Functional Shower Gift!

Caroline Sturman
Nov 11, 2015
3 min read

So this past fall I was invited to three baby showers!! My cousin is having twins and two of my husband’s cousins are also having their first babies. Exciting times! Obviously, I needed some baby shower gifts! Each of them had themes and/or color schemes so I tried to follow them as closely as possible. One cousin’s color scheme was grays and yellows so she got a duck basket that I painted and then filled with goodies! I have a whole blog post dedicated to wooden duck baskets that I keep finding all over Lynchburg. Click here to read that post!

The two crates were bought bare from Michael’s. I figured they'd be great for storing anything from books to diapers to whatever so I felt these would be useful and versatile gifts!

This post is mostly focused on stenciling and also paint-blending since the overall painting process of the two pieces was pretty standard. I did put an extra coat of AS wax over the stenciled areas to protect them from scuffing.

Stenciling

The stencil used on the flower power crate was purchased from Michael’s and I believe is the Martha Stewart brand because I’m fancy.

For the elephant stencil, I decided to make it myself because I wanted a very specific elephant shape that I could easily paint details on. At work, we have notepads that I go through very quickly because I use them for everything! Instead of throwing away (or recycling) the back paperboard piece, I used it to make two stencils – a big elephant and a baby elephant. Obviously, I wanted the baby elephant to fit on the side panels of the crate so I first measured that and then went to work! I did freehand the elephant using a cartoon picture I found on the internet for inspiration. Then I cut out the stencil. I’m not magical so I did have to cut through some of the stencil’s border but I just taped it up so that it was whole again. Easy peasy!

When painting on the stencil, I make sure the stencil is exactly where I want it to be and then tape it down with painter’s tape. Next, I get some paint on my brush and start away from the edges, if possible. One of the big challenges with stencils is getting paint outside the borders…this is usually caused by having too much paint on your brush. So if you’re not in a hurry, only have a small amount of paint on your brush. Also, it is easier to paint stencils with a foam brush but it can be done with any type of brush. I wouldn’t recommend a big brush like the AS brushes though. It wouldn't hurt to test out your stenciling skills on a test board first!

Blending AS Paint

AS does not sell a magenta color, but one of my cousin’s colors for her little girls was magenta so I NEEDED magenta. I found out that you can blend AS Burgundy with a whole lot of AS Old White to make a magenta color. Again, blend in a small bowl to get the color you want and then add more of each color to make a bigger batch. Again, use that test board! And I’d rather make too big of a batch rather than too small that way you are sure to have a constant blended color on your piece.

And how did I get that mint green for the elephant crate? Why, I mixed AS Old White with AS Antibes Green. Crazy! For the details on the elephant stencils, I actually used acrylic paint…mostly because I didn’t have black AS paint to blend with my AS Paris Grey to make it a little darker. And the acrylic paint worked really well and did fine with the AS wax. I swear AS paint is very versatile and works well with other products.