A fun way to upgrade and personalize your cocktails is by using cocktail stencils.

You may ask, “What are cocktail stencils?”

Well they’re just like the type of stencils you would use when you want to trace or copy a drawing. Instead of copying a drawing you can use cocktail stencils to create cool pictures on top of your cocktails.

The best part about today’s tutorial is you can make your cocktail stencil completely personalized and they can be made for any occasion or holiday. Even your wedding initials can work too!

On top of all these awesome reasons, it’s also a fun craft to implement on your next girls night. I mean what sounds better than personalized martinis and gossip??

So why don’t we start our girls night tonight. Grab a drink and let’s get started making these stencils!

contents

What works best

What you need

How to make cocktail stencils

How to use the stencils

Here’s what works best

Creating cocktail stencil designs work best on top of cocktails that:

• Contain no ice
• Have a foamy top from coffee or egg white
• Have a creamy top from heavy cream or milk based ingredients

These textures will allow the design to shine through the best.

The best ingredients used to make the cocktail design are:

• Bitters: The most popularly used bitters are angostura bitters, however you can use any kind of bitters as long as the color is dark enough to see on top of the cocktail.
• Powders & powdered spices: Examples of these would be powdered sugar, or ground cinnamon. The light powder consistency will lay lightly on top of whatever drink you’re making.

The main key this to remember with these ingredients is that you want to make sure the flavor of the ingredient pairs well with the cocktail you are making (I’m not sure how well a gin sour would taste with pumpkin spice powder on top).

what you need to make the stencils

These are the items you will need to make the cocktail stencils

• Index Cards: index cards are perfect as an inexpensive option to make stencils. The size is perfect to sit in top of most cocktail glasses; they are sturdier and firmer than paper; and if you make a mistake you can easily just start over by erasing the design or you can just start over completely on a new card without breaking the bank.
• Pencil: you need something to draw out the design with.
• Scissors: Something to cut out the design.
• Atomizer or Shaker Duster: If you are using bitters as the topping ingredient, you need an atomizer. If your using a powder, you need a shaker duster.

Here’s a link to buy an atomizer for bitters

Here’s a link to buy a shaker duster for powders

how to make the cocktail stencils

step 1: Find a design.

You can use google, pinterest, any website really to look for a design.

Or, you can always make a cool original design yourself.

Whatever design you use, make sure it’s small enough to fit on an index card and it’s not too complicated to cut out later.

step 2: Draw the design

Grab your index card and pencil and begin to sketch out the design.

You can either mimic the technique that I’m doing in this photo where I’m tracing on top of the design or you can just eyeball it.

Step 3: Cut out the design

Using scissors or a exacto knife, cut out your design.

The best part about cutting is it doesn’t have to be perfect. The stencil never comes out with super sharp edges and it is just for a cocktail at the end of the day.

how to use the stencils

Now that we have our beautiful stencils created, we can put them to good use.

Basically what you want to do is:

1. Make the cocktail you want the stencil on
2. Place the stencil across the top of the glass
3. Dust or spray your topping ingredient over the stencil into the cocktail, and you’re done!

Like said earlier, if you are using a powder, you need a shaker duster.

Basically just open up the duster and add in the powder you would like to use. When you’re ready to garnish, tap the duster and the powder should sprinkle lightly on your cocktail.

I usually will only sprinkle enough of my powder to create the full design. You don’t want to sprinkle too much to the point the powder becomes heavy enough to fall in the cocktail vs as a topper.

If you are using bitters as your topping ingredient, you will need an atomizer. Open the atomizer, pour in some of the bitters, close it back up and then you’re all set to spray away.

I hope you enjoyed this cocktail stencil tutorial and I hope you enjoy making some cute cocktail stencil designs.

Cheers!

This post was all about cocktail stencils.