DIY Painted Patterned Stenciled Feathers

In this DIY tutorial, I'll show you how to easily and quickly stencil feathers in a variety of patterns using just a few materials that you can easily obtain!

You'll need feathers, Rub N Buff gold paint (or another paint in whatever color you like), a stiff brush for stenciling, and paper for making stencils.

I decided to repurpose some ho-hum feathers from a pair of earrings I bought for next to nothing, but you could also use regular feathers from a craft store. I liked these because they already have caps on the end, which makes it easier to turn them into jewelry again. You could also buy crimp caps and add the end yourself after they're painted.

Take your piece of paper, fold it in half if you're making a symmetrical pattern, and cut out a shape. Here, I cut out a line at a slant to make a chevron stripe.

Place your stencil over your feather.

I lined up the point in the middle of the stencil with the line going down the feather to make sure that it was centered.

Now it's time to paint! I put a piece of paper under the feather to keep the paint that might go through the individual plumes from staining my work surface. Wax paper works great for this as well. Then I squeezed out a little paint onto the paper, dipped the brush into it, and then stippled it (a hard up and down motion, like you're hitting the brush against the paint) on a different area to get off the excess paint. You don't want too much paint on the brush or it will seep under your stencil.

Then I stippled over my stencil with the brush, making sure I got nice even coverage of the uncovered area. If you need more paint, just reload your brush like you did initially. Make sure you hold your stencil down nice and flat and taut over the feather. This keeps the paint from going under the edges of the stencil.

Carefully remove your stencil and you should have a stripe that looks like this!

You can cut lots of different stencils to get different results. Here are a few that I did.

You can see the accompanying stencils I made for each feather here. From top to bottom: the chevron one already shown, a nice thick line (I painted this three times: two times to form an "x", and a final time down at the bottom with the stencil spilling over the edge), polka dots, and an argyle stripe.

For the polka dots, I used a hole punch to cut out circles in a random pattern. Then I just stenciled over each hole.

Here I reused the chevron stripe to make it a double.

A triple stripe looks nice as well!

I think this stencil was my favorite. First, I cut out a diamond shape, and stenciled this in the middle. Then, I cut out an "X", centered the stencil over the diamond (let it dry first), and carefully stippled it. The "X" had a lot of edges to hold down, so I went slowly and carefully to make sure it didn't bleed under the edges at all.

I think next I might try thin stripes stenciled into a gingham or plaid pattern, stars, triangles, or a combination of polka dots and stripes.

Let the feathers dry thoroughly, and then turn them into whatever kind of jewelry you like! Make matching (or even non-matching) ones for a pair of earrings, turn one into a pendant, or use different sizes for a string of feathers along a length of chain. You could put the biggest as the center pendant, with gradually-smaller ones on each side going back towards the clasp. You could also attach them to string or leather and then braid them into your hair for a Bohemian look! These would be great for making DIY Christmas presents as well.

DIY Ceramic Goods with Pebeo Porcelaine

I discovered Pebeo Porcelaine paints about a year ago, and since then I've discovered so many easy, impressive uses for them!


They come in two versions - pens, and paint pots. The pens you can just use as is, but for the pots you'll need a brush or two. I only have the colors shown above so far, but they are available in every hue! You can also mix colors to get just the shade you want.


I originally bought these to play around with making pendants. The paints are for ceramic surfaces, so make sure you only use unglazed materials.

You just apply the paint, let it dry for 24 hours, and then either apply another color on top, or bake them in a conventional oven. If you use another color, make sure you DON'T bake in-between or the second color will not stick - I learned this the hard way!


You can paint on initials and other details like the pendants shown in previous photos, or you can keep it simple-but-still-classy with single-colored ones like these. String several on the same cord or chain for a boho, breezy look.


You can also use the paints on other surfaces to give them a ceramic finish. Here I thoroughly washed and dried scallop shells and then applied various colors to only the inner surface. I then baked them according to the directions.


They make great trinket or jewelry dishes! Match the colors to your decor while preserving the memories of your trip to the beach with your favorite people.


Here I glazed the outside of the shell instead. I'm going to drill holes in the tops of these and use them as earrings or pendants.


Same thing here - I used a mussel shell and did just the outside.


I've had some old skeleton keys sitting around, but they seemed too plain to turn into pendants as is. So, I dipped them in the white paint and then hung them over a pan to drip dry. Very vintage-meets-mod! This will look great hanging from some dark, thin leather cording - use an 18" length so it has some movement and a more modern look.

I hope these ideas spark some of your own! The paints are so versatile. Let me know what you come up with!