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Did you know you can make your own stencils? It’s pretty easy to do and cost-effective.
You can cut them by hand if you don’t have a Cricut or another cutting machine. It’s a great way to upcycle materials.
You can make them out of heavy cardboard or cardstock. I used a plastic food container.
What you’ll need
- Cardboard, craft foam, plastic container, or cardstock.
- craft knife.
- cutting mat or layers of cardboard
- scissors
- tape
- your stencil guide
You can also trace your outline using a marker.
Preparing your materials
You can wash your container well and let it dry.
You can create your stencil pattern using any word-processing document or image editor. You can also find royalty-free images as well.
You can practice by using magazine images or text.
You can set up your work area as well.
Cutting your stencil out.
I sized up my containers and placed my pattern on them to see which would be the best place to cut them.
I used containers similar to these:
I then trimmed the plastic lid to size so the plastic would lay flat.
following that I sapped the paper to the plastic before starting to cut.
A note on cutting
I used an old box on top of a plastic clipboard to hold my stencil in place. I also used an old Xacto knife set I inherited from my late brother.
If you use a cutting mat you can also try to tape the stencil paper down to it as well as the plastic.
What I found is you need to press firmly and move slowly. It can be a bit tedious work.
The final results
For being my first try I think the stencils didn’t turn out too bad. I know I need to work on my technique and cutting shapes and letters. But I learned a new skill.
I wanted to add the I ♥ Black cats but the plastic wasn’t large enough. So I opted to just add the I ♥.
The I ♥ Tuxies stencil wasn’t too bad but does need a little work.
I thought these would be good to try with my Gelli plate because I can wash them when I’m done. I’ll post more when I try them out.
Other stencil options
I did some research and you can purchase blank stencil materials on Amazon. I’ve also seen that you can create a stencil by using a heat tool as well.
Folk art stencil cutter is another product you can use to cut out a stencil.
Of course, you can also use a cutting machine such as a Cricut or a Scan and cut.
Would this be a craft you’d try?
