Cutting Edge Stencil Review & Giveaway {or making a home}

**Giveaway now closed***

We've lived in our rental house for 20 months now. We're here through at least the end of next April. When we first moved in, I was frustrated about moving away from friends and family, pregnant and still getting all day "morning" sickness, and had just lost my mom. I just didn't have the desire or energy to really make this house into anything homey.

When I got the nesting bug, I had a nursery to decorate. Since Emma showed up a bit early, the nursery was the only thing to benefit from that particular bug. After we started sleeping a bit more, I started to slowly but surely make this house feel more like home. It's been a really slow process, but also a process that I've enjoyed.

When Cutting Edge Stencils contacted me asking if I would like to review one of their stencils, I did a highly undignified happy dance. Then I realized I have so many places that are in need of some love. I had such an awful time picking a stencil. Taking a look at our very busy schedule and realizing that we would only be able to stencil during Emma's nap or after she went to bed, we decided to go for a wall pattern kit rather than an all over stencil. I decided that the Parsley Blooms Wall Pattern Kit was just what our dinning room wall needed.

As apart of the decorating process, I have been slowly but surely putting together a gallery wall in our living room. We have an open floor plan that flows from kitchen to dinning room to living room. I decided to take the colors from a printable and fabric that are on the wall to use for the dinning room wall.

Before stenciling, I watched Cutting Edge's How To video and also read the instruction sheet. This was my first time stenciling and I found these resources very helpful. Make sure you follow the instructions about blotting off the paint onto a paper towel. It makes a huge difference. I'm also glad I practiced on a pizza box.

Our walls are both highly textured and poorly constructed. The dry wall was poorly hung, so there's not a flat wall in the whole place. I did have some bleeding while stenciling, but I attribute that to the oddities of the wall rather than a flaw with the stencil. I found making sure I had very little paint on my brush reduced the bleeding.

I did find the stencils hard to clean. Since I was using three different colors, I had to clean the stencils between colors. It was a bit annoying to do. It also took a long time. I wished I had a foam roller for each color. The instructions suggest it and having them would have made the whole process a bit quicker. However, this was user error and not an issue with the stencil itself.

Overall, I would defiantly use another Cutting Edge Stencil. I may or may not already be eyeing a couple of the craft stencils. The stencil itself is of great quality. The instructions were very helpful. Cleaning the stencil was a pain. However, this would not deter me from giving stenciling another go.

The kind people over at Cutting Edge Stencil have offered one very lucky person a stencil of their choice {up to a $50} value. They're also throwing in free shipping! This giveaway is only open to US residents. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter!

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Come party with me!

 C.R.A.F.T, Mommy By Day, Crafter By Night, Shwin & Shwin, Tip Junkie, Southern Lovely, Uncommon Designs, Somewhat Simple, Yesterday on Tuesday, House of Hempworths, 52 Mantels, The CSI Project, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, Family Ever After, The Grant Life, Positively Splendid, I {Heart} Nap Time, It's Overflowing