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Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Homemade Stencils


Often I've wished I had a particular stencil for a project but couldn't find exactly what was needed online. Also I knew I may only use it once or twice so why pay a hefty price? One of my friends is an avid scrapbooker and she suggested, "why not use cardstock and coat it with Mod Podge?" Why not indeed! She has a Cricut so she cut out various shapes for me to try. For this demo I cut my own. I used 90# cardstock and cut out my pattern with an Exacto knife. Then I coated both sides with one coat of mat Mod Podge, allowing the first side to dry completely on waxed paper before covering the opposite side. This makes the stencil fairly waterproof so it can be rinsed off after use. I tried out my dragonfly stencil with Speedball silkscreen ink and a roller first with so-so results. I washed off the Speedball ink and tried again with metallic fluid acrylic and a makeshift stencil brush with slightly better results. Note to self: make sure the stencil is completely dry before reuse so the paint doesn't run under the stencil.

Note: 2nd image down>Notice how clean the stencil is after being covered with black Speedball ink. I just rinsed it under running water and voila!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hi Billy,
may I suggest making your own stencils by cutting them from plastic storage folders? Or thin acrylic?
Than you can look through them and better see where you place your stencil.
I use the plastic/acrylic covers outside of papers that are put in spiralbindings and sometimes those plastic folders that are used in multomaps ( sorry I do not know the english word)

Billie Crain said...

Excellent idea, Cecile!