Arg, avast ye scurvy dog! If you are planning a pirate themed birthday party or have a pint size swashbuckler in your house these pirate stencils are a great way to keep them busy. It's part of a really cool series from Dover Publications and falls into their Little Activity Book series. These are smaller versions of books that are made just for younger kids to enjoy but older kids and adults can just as easily make use of them. Almost all of the books in the series have six images to work with, have a good bit of detail and are priced at $1.50 or less. Pirate themed parties are always fun to have and attend and things like this make decorating a quick and inexpensive way to add to the fun.

Fun With Pirate Stencils

There are a total of six stencils in this book and they all carry a heavy pirate feel to them. They are simple enough that younger kids can trace them out and color them in but older kids and adults can have fun with them using them for projects or crafts. My personal favorite is the pirate flag but the skull and crossbones is also pretty cool. I used these to decorate the top of a batch of brownies; if you want to try it all you have to do is lay the stencil on top of the brownie sheet [after it has cooled of course] then brush on some powdered sugar. I wouldn't try that with a royal icing because it will ruin the stencil no matter how careful you are tracing out the design. If you are going to do this use a clean dry pastry brush to tap on the powdered sugar then lift off the stencil and dump the excess sugar in the trash.

You can have a lot of fun with the treasure chest design too; you can spray paint that on to boxes or old wooden produce crates for a party or for trash during a party. The ship can be a little difficult to work with but if you take your time drawing it out it looks great. There are two pirate figures in the book, one of a Captain Peg Leg looking fellow and one that is a close up of a pirate face. One really cool thing to do with the ship stencil is to use the pirate face on opposite sides for a larger long image. Another thing I just started doing was using chalk with the stencils for temporary designs on sidewalks and driveways. I use the really big thick pieces of chalk and it only takes a couple of seconds to draw out a bunch of them. Clean up is also easy, a bucket of water or few passes with a garden hose and it's gone from sight.

About the only real downside to these stencils is that they are made from card stock instead of plastic. That means that there are only so many things that you can do with them and a limited number of times that you can use them. They cost about $1.50 a book so they aren't all that expensive but I would rather pay a little more and get the stencil designs cut into plastic so that they are easier to work with and last longer. These are a nice thing for kids through, if they are a little careful with them they can get a good bit of use out of them. I did play around with a couple ways to extend the life of them but I wasn't about to try to seal them in plastic then use an X-Acto knife to cut out the sections. To me its just easier to order a couple more books from the website than to waste an hour or so sealing them then cutting out the sections.

I have never seen this title in a bookstore, I came across it when I was looking for pirate themed things at the Dover online store and figured that for a dollar fifty it wasn't too much of a risk. I would love to see them sell these in retail stores even if they sold them in packs of three or more similarly themed stencil books. I don't mind buying them from the website as I do order from it often but I don't want to find myself behind the 8 ball and need another stencil set and then have to wait for them to ship out. Because these are made of card stock instead of plastic the price is extremely reasonable but as I said, I would be more than willing to pay more for a plastic set if Dover would ever consider making them.

The Bottom Line

These are great fun for pirate themed birthday parties or for celebrating "Talk Like A Pirate Day". Kids of all ages can have fun with them and adults can use them for various crafts. They can be considered a disposable product but with a little bit of care and consideration you can get a good bit of use out of them before they start to fall apart or rip. Even if kids only get a few uses from them they can have a lot of fun coloring in the designs or using them to make large posters from them. For $1.50 you are getting six cool stencils with a pirate theme and something that can really add a lot to your pirate party experience.


As always, thanks for the visit…

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2008 Freak369



Pirate themed products
Skull Pops With Crackling Candy
Fatty Ratty Gummy Rat
Dead Ringers Pirate Treasure Candy Rings
M&M Pirates of The Caribbean Collection
Kellogg's Pirates of The Caribbean Cereal
Pirate Candy Treasure Chest
Pirate Skull Confetti - Skeleton Pen - Pirate Crayons
Foose 9 Piece Pirate Cookie Cutter Set

Learning Curve Play Town Pirate Ship
Neopet Pirate Blumaroo Plushie
Pirates of The Caribbean Sticker Book

Female Pirate - Viking Leader - Sea Robber
Pirate & Skull - Pirate Crew - Angry Pirate
One Eyed Pirate - Captain Peg Leg - Skull Island


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Recommended: Yes