DIY coffee stencils

Latte art is both impressive and beautiful. With a little ingenuity, patience, and some common household items you can create beautiful, impressive, and original designs right from your own kitchen. This simple method is an easy way to add some panache to your home-brewed latte. What’s more, you can tailor your latte art for personal taste or holiday themes and involve the whole family in stencil design and creation.

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What you will need

• The top from a round plastic take away container¹
• X-Acto knife
• Cinnamon or your favorite coffee topping
• Stencil design
• Frothed milk
• coffee
• A cutting mat

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Instructions

1.) Choose your stencil design. There are many free pre-drawn stencils available on the internet, or you can choose to draw your own.

2.) Place the stencil design on top of a cutting mat. If you do not have one you can use a piece of sturdy cardboard. Center your take away container on top of the stencil flat side down. You can use a piece of tape to hold it in place.

3.) Using an X-Acto knife, carefully cut out your design from the plastic. Take your time, and if you need to go over the cut twice do so. It’s OK if your cuts aren’t perfect! Pop the plastic out. You now have a sturdy reusable stencil.

4.) Prepare your latte and place the stencil on top of the cup. The take away lid is an ideal size for a large rimmed latte mug.

5.) Sprinkle the cinnamon (or topping of your choice — cocoa or nutmeg are also great choices) over the stencil. Use a sieve or a strainer to ensure even distribution. Carefully remove the stencil.

6.) There you have it — your very own beautiful latte art!

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¹ You can also use craft plastic sheets, or if you have clear packing tape, print out a paper stencil and then cover it completely with tape before cutting the design out. This will make for a relatively sturdy stencil. Make sure your cutout is large enough such that it can sit comfortable on top of your latte mug with the design centered.