“Oooh, this looks beautiful! Who brought this?” Yeah, that’d be me. Shazam!
This is the scenario I’m aiming for. So, even if I’m picking up a pumpkin pie from a local bakery, or just making brownies from a box mix, I like to add a little something special. I made these food stencils to personalize my baked goods for this holiday season and just love the charm they add to a simple pie, naked or frosted cake, or even a foamy drink. The stencils are simple to make, and I even included templates to make it even easier for ya!
It can be fun to design your own stencils using family names, inside jokes, or pretty graphics, but if you’re in the mood for a simpler project, you can download the templates above.
-printed templates
-cake pans or other round objects
-permanent market
-craft blade (Make sure it’s fresh and sharp.)
-cutting mat (not shown)
-stencil sheets (I purchsed mine at a local craft store for about $1 each.)
-masking tape or drafting tape (not shown)
Step Two: Use a small round object to trace a little tab on one or both sides of the stencil.
Tip: Use a cake pan as a template for your stencil size. This will ensure that your stencil is the size of your cake, making it easier to use.
Step Four: Use masking or drafting tape to fix the stencil on top of the printed template. Use a sharp craft blade to cut out the template design. If your blade is sharp, you shouldn’t have to press too hard.
Credits // Author and Photography: Mandi Johnson. Photos edited with Stella from the Signature Collection.
48 Comments
Awesome project Mandi!!!! I want to try it soon!
xx- Elsie
This is adorable!! Thank you so much for sharing and so generously providing some templates as well.
super cute! Couldn’t you also use sheets of acetate or dura-lar from the art store? In a pinch it’s nice to have in-person purchasing options 🙂
That looks so cute. I can’t wait to try it.
xx
Perfect just in time for Christmas! 🙂
Also, just wondering – has A Beautiful Mess contacted the Print My Insta challenge winner yet?
Thanks!!!
Hi Emily! Not yet, but we hope to this week 🙂 -Jacki
These look so great! I’d like to try these on brownies soon!
-E
http://amie-eo.blogspot.com
I love this! Definitely trying this for the holidays!
https://classiccosmopolite.wordpress.com/
Yep— You sure can! I got my sheets from a local craft store in the paint/stenciling aisle. At my store it was about $1.50 for one sheet. If you just wanted to whip up a stencil right away, and don’t have time to go to the store, you could even use paper and just discard it, since you obviously can’t wash paper. 🙂 -Mandi
Oooo I love this. Particularly the drink idea!
This is such a good idea and I think I will definitely be trying this out this season!
http://whatmaisiedid.blogspot.co.uk/
I love these stencils! They are sure to make this holiday season a lot of fun. Happy Monday, Mandi 🙂
Oh wow this is an amazing idea! I’ll definitely downloading the ‘yum yum’ template, thank you for providing them for us!
Beauty and Lifestyle Blog
xx
These are awesome. It’s amazing how such a simple idea can have such a pretty effect! Really clever x
What a great idea girls. By the way I looove your blog!!!
http://szkorso.blogspot.ro/
What a great idea!!! By the way I looove your blog! 🙂
http://szkorso.blogspot.ro/
Aww I’m totally going to try the ‘give thanks for pie’ one on a pumpkin pie this Thursday! So cute, thanks! 🙂
http://yellowcalico.blogspot.com/
It’s official, all my holiday gifts and treats will be creating using ideas from ABM!
Helo!
You are my inspiration this week <3
http://lateliercabris.blogspot.com.ar/2014/11/inspiracion-de-la-semana.html
Kisses
These are great, thanks for sharing! I never would have thought to decorate my goodies this way, but it’s so much simpler than trying to draw designs/pictures with icing. That just gives me headaches and makes me frustrated, I have no patience.
This is such a cute idea!
This is awesome…love this DIY…Mandi you come up with such cute ideas, great inspiration you are… this is perfect…
xo
Hems
agoldentulip.blogspot.com
These are SO SO sweet! What a great idea! I’d love to do this with people’s names for a cute table setting!
http://sometimesgracefully.com
Oh my, how cute! Really clever idea.
Such a genious idea, I will definitely try this out!!! ♡
Never would have thought of doing this! Great idea!
These are so freaking cute! It’s such a simple project to make your baked goods look 10X cuter! I love it!
This is so cute! I love it
Xo
Diary Of A Mua
How creative!
I’m certainly going to make those for Christmas 🙂
http://stylestandpoint.com
This is a really cute idea! The best part is they won’t take up much space when storing!
Love this! Going to print the templates out ASAP & use them for all my christmas bakes 🙂 Liv x
This is perfect for christmas time! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Perfect for Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays!
Oh my these are amazing guys!
https://annescribblesanddoodles.blogspot.com/
So so so creative easy and cute! Perfect 🙂
How cool are these?!?!? love it. Bec
http://www.dancingthroughsunday.com.au
super love this!!! thanx for the idea! 😀
what a cute idea!!
xx nikki
http://www.dream-in-neon.com
Great idea. I will definitely try this!
http://www.blogiration.com
Do you know what you can use instead of the stencil sheets? Old X-Rays!
Sure, it’s not the perfect stencil sheet (as you cant see properly what’s happening on the other side), but most people have one old x-ray hanging around their place!
(and of course, using a X-Ray as a stencil sheet on Halloween would be pretty cool! good idea for next year)
I’ve used old X-Rays as stencil sheets to print some t-shirts a while ago, they worked perfectly!
xo,
from Brazil!
Ohh this is so nice! I am definitely going to try this! x
I adore this so much!! 🙂
This is so cool!
Wow, those are totally cute!
Oh, this is awesome! I’ve been wanting to add designs to food and this’ll make it so much easier.
Before linking to a product (like the stencil sheets) on Amazon, it would be so great if you could actually research and make sure it’s a good product that matches your tutorial next time. The stencil sheets you linked to on Amazon are clearly not the ones used in the blog demonstration. I purchased them trusting they would work for the project, but I guess that was naive of me. They are super-thin, totally transparent, and they tear easily and do not hold up as food stencils. It was a complete waste of my (very limited) money. 🙁 Grafix does make plastic sheets that are thicker and more opaque, likely similar to the ones used in the tutorial, but the ones linked to were not them. I know that I will never again click on or trust a product link and will do extensive research myself before purchasing – but I just thought you’d like to know that maybe you should either remove or update your link to a product that suits the tutorial.
I’m really sorry that you had a bad experience with the stencils, but I want to thank you for letting us know about them. I removed the link thanks to your feedback. For this project, I purchased my generic stencil sheets for about a dollar each at a local craft store, but because many readers frequently ask where they can purchase supplies, if they don’t have a local craft store where they can buy them in person, we like to link to products where they can find them online. I incorrectly assumed stencil sheets were pretty similar across the board, so I didn’t order and try out these sheets before linking to them as a source to buy stencil sheets. In the future I will make sure to be more clear about my personal experience or lack of experience with the specific product I link to in my posts. Thanks for your feedback and I’m sorry you had a bad experience! I’d also like to recommend that you contact Amazon about receiving a full refund for your purchase since you were not satisfied with it. -Mandi
Hi Mandi- To start – thank you for a great craft inspiration (I think I forgot to say that before)! And I do love that a link is provided for an online source as I don’t have a reasonably priced craft store near me and do shop online for most of my materials. It is partially my fault for not researching and just blindly trusting the link provided (which I did acknowledge), but I do appreciate that you took my feedback and will note more clearly if you’re linking to the actual product you used or not.
Just to let you know – the product that was formerly linked is kind of like a slightly thicker version of those transparency sheets used for overhead projectors – like teachers used when we were kids. I’m not going to contact amazon as I don’t think making food stencils is using the product in the manner it was intended so I don’t have much of a claim, unfortunately. If I can’t find a creative use for the sheets then I will eventually donate them to a charitable cause.
At least I still have all of the nautical drawings I made for my stencils to use at some point in the future if I purchase a better material. I’ll stick them in my pattern file for now. Thanks again for the great inspiration and for kindly and graciously taking reader feedback!