Victoria Larsen's Plaster Molds Get Attention from Glo Magazine

I've always loved it when our products get featured in a major publication!

Glo Magazine included us in their "DIY's That Instantly Change a Room" article!

It's easy and a lot of fun to create plaster wall art using our Plaster Molds.

For instance, choose a medallion mold and cast it in plaster of paris.
Create a wall hook by simply unfolding a paper clip. Bend it in the the shape of a "U".
Crimp the ends to create hooks then insert those ends in to the wet plaster leaving about 1/2" of the closed end of your hook protruding from the wet plaster. Once dry, this will serve as your wall hook.

Once the piece is totally dry, prime the piece and then paint it a pale color. Wall paint or craft paints are perfect for this.
Mix a deeper shade of the same color with translucent wall glaze and paint the piece with this mixture.
Now, using a dry terry towel, wipe off all the excess, leaving the darker paint in the recesses of the design.
This brings out the beauty of the piece.

Hang groups of different pieces on the wall to create a collage of ornamental plaster.
It's beautiful!

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.com website for more great ideas plus tons of plaster stencils, painting stencils and plaster molds to help you create the beautiful home you've always dreamed of.

Kathy Van Gough, a talented artist and friend to our business for many years had the insight to develop a new product line for her business. The Van Gough line of Chalk Paint.

I'd heard of chalk paint before but had never tried it until now. All I can say is WOW! What an easy paint to work with! It slides on like butter on warm bread, the coverage is spectacular, the bonding superb, the colors are delicious and her beeswax sealer is to die for!

Chalk paint was one of the first forms of paint man ever developed and why it was ever replaced with anything else is beyond my reasoning.

Chalk paint has seen a resurgence of popularity over the years and faux finish artists all over the world swear by it's performance. I now see why.

A favorite application is on furniture because of it's bonding capabilities and Kathy's color line is modern and beautiful.

I personally fell in love with her tinted beeswax sealer. This product is a fabulous alternative to varnish. Not only does it thoroughly seal your painted surface, but you can use it as (what I call) a "detail rub" for raised plaster stenciling.

Rubbing a deeply tinted beeswax over your raised stenciling does two things at once. It seals the surface and the design but also brings out the intricate detail of a raised plaster stencil design. I used her French Caffeine Beeswax and am now HOOKED!

Here I used it over our new Raised Plaster Preston Frieze Stencil. See that bit of shine? That's the beeswax as it has sealed the surface. See all that dark detail? That's the tint of the beeswax. LOVE this stuff!

So if you are thinking about throwing out that old table, re-doing your cabinets or thinking about a new wall treatment, visit The Van Gough Chalk Paint website and check out the gallery for fabulous ideas. Then visit our website at Victoria Larsen Stencils for the designs you crave to make your project truly beautiful.

How to Stencil Raised Designs on Furniture: The Finished Table

For heaven's sake! Just as I get a moment to breathe and finish my table project, I'm once again bombarded with scads of orders and new project invitations and again it got put on hold. But finally, it's finished! Varnish and all.

As I showed in my last post on this stenciling project, I had added the raised designs to the round sides of the table with our Raised Plaster Tremont Borders Stencil Set and then had fun adding a bit more to the design using a cake decorating bag to create additional dots and curved lines.

I then painted the entire table, designs and all, jet black. I LOVE black furniture! It's regal, seems mysterious somehow and shows off a design in a spectacular way. I use black as the accent color in my living room in rugs, pillows and occasional tables. It looks very high end as the anchor color to the soft golds I use in everything else. 

Because the designs from the Raised Plaster Stencil protruded from the surface, it was super easy to paint just the design with an artist brush and metallic paint. In fact, it's totally fun!

I decided that the top of the table needed something spectacular, so I added our Alana Medallion Raised Plaster Stencil design with multi colors of paint. Soft brown, pale green a hint of pink and the same gold I used for the raised design created a lovely addition to my table design.

I finished off the table by doing just some of the trim in the same gold paint color that I used for the raised design. It's easy to go just a bit "nuts" when adding more gold trim so it's important to keep balance and simplicity in mind when ultimately designing your piece. For instance, I could have painted the entire table leg in gold paint. But the result would have taken this project from "elegant" to "gaudy". 

The final table project thrills the bajeebaz out of me since I now have an occasional table for my love seat in my living room (and I'm giving a party in two weeks so it will come in quite handy!)

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.com website for elegant stencils, ornamental plaster molds and oodles of ideas and inspiration!

How to Stencil Raised Designs on Furniture Part ll

As I sat looking at the table project last night, I got a brilliant idea! I think I will add piped flowers to the peaks of the raised stencil design. I'll simply fill a cake decorating bag, cut a small hole in the tip and start creating! If you've never done this, it's a blast!


Try creating your own raised designs on your walls (such as vines, poke-a-dots or geometric shapes. It's a kick in the pants and when you do it with joint compound, if you don't like it, simply scrape it off and start over.