I get a lot of questions about how to do stenciling. In order to do the stenciling on this cake, I did a lot of praying :) That's the key! haha. Actually, I had the cakes covered in homemade marshmallow fondant, then I used black buttercream as my "paint." I held the stencil up against one side. I used a paint brush to "paint" the black buttercream all over the stencil, being extra careful to not let the buttercream seep out of the edges of the stencil. I used a straightedge to scrape the side of the stencil in order to gather the excess and to give it a smooth look. This is when the praying comes in. I gently pulled the stencil away from the cake and hoped for the best. I have to say, I was VERY anxious when I applied the first stencil but wouldn't you know it, it came off beautiful, no smudges, no errors, no problems to fix. Yay! One down, 26 stencil jobs to go (there were four sides for four tiers and then the middle tier had three separate stencils for each side). Phew! In the end, I was so happy with the outcome that I actually carried the cake to my man-friend for him to see if (yes, I usually just ask him to come see it but I was OVERLY excited that I wanted to carry it to him!).