stenciling

Stenciled NOEL Canvas Holiday Panels

December 18, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 5 Comments

Day 18 of the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

The goal for these 24 days is to give you ideas for hand-crafted Christmas decorations for your tree and home. Come back each day to try the next craft. 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

The NOEL panels provide dimension to this stenciled canvas project

Here it is, day 18 and I haven’t done a stenciling project yet! I love stenciling and having a Cricut to cut my stencils for me makes it even easier. In keeping with this holiday theme, I took inspiration from a project I did a few months back where I stenciled the word HOME on separate 10-inch canvas panels (and the “O” was a cow face). I also used vinyl that I get for free because these were single-use stencils.

For this project, I am stenciling the word NOEL on four separate 3-inch canvas panels and attaching those panels to a 10-inch panel (because who wants to pound all those nails in their wall).

Materials and Supplies

Start with one 10-inch canvas panel and four three-inch canvas panels

4 three-inch canvas panels
1 ten-inch canvas panel
Pattern from my Resource Library
White Paint
Red Paint
Green Paint
Silver Paint
Gold Paint
Stencil brushes
Paint brush
Ribbon
Stencil material (I used vinyl and cut it on my Cricut but you can use any stencil film)
Water-based Glue
Hot Glue

Cutting the Stencil

As with most of my projects, you do not have to use a craft machine to cut the design. I provide the pattern in my Resource Library in a PDF that you can cut by hand.

Upload the .SVG file to your craft machine to cut the stencils. Weed the vinyl and apply the transfer film.

Note: If you want to learn how to acquire vinyl for free when you need vinyl for a stencil (that you will just throw away anyway), you can read my post about how to talk to a sign shop to acquire their vinyl scraps. They throw away scraps that are larger than your cutting mat.

Surface Preparation

Most of your craft-store quality stretched canvas comes with gesso already applied. Gesso is your primer on the canvas. Apply a coat of white craft acrylic paint to the four 3-in panels. Apply red craft acrylic paint to the 10-inch canvas panel. You may need more than one coat, depending on your specific paint.

TIP: If you want to move the paint-drying portion of the project along faster, you can use a blow dryer to help speed things. Use the warm (not hot) setting and keep the blow dryer nozzle no closer than six inches from the panels. move the blow dryer around, don’t keep it in one place. These precautions are to prevent distortions in your canvas.

Apply the Stencil

TIP: Applying vinyl stencils to square/rectangular objects. Cut the corners off of the vinyl. You can now see the corners of the work surface and can align the vinyl stencils to the edges of the work surface.

Clip the corners off to help with positioning the stencils

Apply the stencils to each of the four 3-inch canvas panels. If you are using a large stencil brush, mask the corners so you do not accidentally stencil those areas.

The NOEL stencils are all applied and ready to be stenciled

Stenciling

For any of you who have read any of my previous posts, you know I use the pouncing technique of stenciling. This is the traditional method and the method I used in my stenciling certification projects (you can read more on the About Me page).

Vinyl does not make a strong bond with canvas, so using a swirling or stroking motion with your stenciling will cause paint to bleed under the stencil. You will have better success with a pouncing technique.

Like many of these posts, make it the way you want, use the colors that suit your style. I will continue to describe the project the way I made it.

Stencil the “N” and the “L” with red paint
Stencil the “E” with green paint
Stencil the “O” (Ornament) with the gold and silver paints

You will likely need more than one coat of paint in the stenciling.

This short video shows me stenciling one of the panels (at 3x speed). I have detailed information on how to use the pouncing technique of stenciling in a previous post where I stencil a tote bag.

Remove the stencils.

Assemble

Add the Ribbon

Turn the 10-inch canvas panel so the front side of the panel is on your work surface. Mark the center of each side with a pencil.

Wrap the ribbon around so that it starts on the back of one of the sides, wraps around the front, then ends on the back side of the opposite side. Hot glue in place.

Turn the panel 90-degrees and repeat.

Using hot glue, add the ribbon to the larger canvas

Add the Panels

Turn the 10-inch panel so the front surface is now facing you.

Using the water-based paint, glue the NOEL panels into the sections created by the ribbon. You can use hot glue if you can work fast enough. I prefer to use something that sets-up slower than hot glue so I can adjust the position of the little panels.

Using the same ribbon, create a bow and hot glue it to the top of the 10-inch canvas panel.

After applying the ribbon and a bow, this stenciled NOEL panel is ready to decorate your home

Time to Decorate!

Your NOEL panel is now ready to decorate your home this holiday season and for many seasons to come.

Come back each day for a new project in the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

You can get the patterns to all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

Remember to pin this to your favorite holiday crafting board on Pinterest!

Stencil mini canvas panels and glue them to a larger panel to make this decorative addition to your Christmas holiday | #diy #christmas #stenciling #stencil #noel

DIY “Create” Sign for Craft Room

November 12, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 6 Comments

To celebrate the success I have achieved in my Craft Room Transformation project so far, I decided to make a Create sign to hang in my craft room, just something small, inspirational, and just for me. I stenciled this using a stencil cut from vinyl on my Cricut. This is a one-time throw-away stencil and a perfect use for vinyl you can get for free.

Learn how you can inspire yourself to be creative!

Material and Supplies

(This post contains affiliate links to one or more of the items I used in this project – which means, if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission. There is no added cost to you!)

Wood Oval
Paint for basecoat (I used latex paint from painting my craft room walls)
Paint for accent (latex paint from painting my craft room trim)
Paint for the stenciling (artist acrylics)
Paint brushes
Stencil brushes
Design (in my Resource Library)

I bought birch ovals so I could make signs to give as gifts. With several in the stack, I have enough to make a Create sign for myself. They are a nice size. The information says that they are 12-1/2″ x 7-3/4″ but mine measures 12-3/4″ along the longest measurement.

Prepare and Paint the Wood

The birch ovals are nicely cut and only needed a light sanding to smooth out the edges. Once sanded, I applied two coats of the wall paint that I used when I painted my craft room. Latex paint takes longer to dry than acrylics. If you use wall paint like I did, be sure to let the basecoat dry a day before using a vinyl stencil on it.

To give the edge of the Create sign some contrast from the walls, I painted the edge and a border on the face of the sign in bright white. To draw a consistent border around the edge, there a few ways you can do this.

You can use a drawing compass. Set the spacing between the point and the pencil to the border depth you want. You also need to move the pencil up into the clamp. Lay the side of the point/pin against the vertical edge of the sign and set the pencil point onto the surface of the sign. Then, just draw the compass around the sign.
You can use a seamstress hem measuring tool. Set the slider to the depth of the border you want to paint and mark all around the face of the sign. You could also use a ruler to measure in your border width.
Rig up your own tool with tape, a pencil and another item that will give you the spacing you need. For my example, I used two pencils and a chopstick.

Once the border was drawn, I started the border with a fine liner brush.

Using a larger brush, I filled in the border, including the vertical edges.

Create the Stencil

You can hand-cut the stencil or you can cut in on a craft machine.

For your project you can choose one of the following:

Machine cut: Download the zip file from my Resource Library, extract the .SVG file and upload it to your craft machine design software. Cut the vinyl, weed it, then apply the transfer material.
Hand cut: Download the PDF file from my Resource Library, print page 2 on legal (8-1/2″x14″) paper, hand cut from stencil film.

This was going to be a one-time stencil so I decided to cut it on my Cricut from a low tack vinyl. The design is laid out to be cut from a single sheet of vinyl. You can separate the objects to different pieces of vinyl if you prefer.

Note: If you want to learn how to acquire vinyl for free when you need vinyl for a stencil (that you will just throw away anyway), you can read my post about how to talk to a sign shop to acquire their vinyl scraps. They throw away scraps that are larger than your cutting mat.

Apply the Stencil for the “Create” Sign

The stencil is designed to fit within the border on the sign. Not all pre-fabricated oval signs will be the exact same size so you may need to guess a little when placing the stencil.

Remove the backing from the vinyl
Holding the transfer material, center the stencil inside the border
Burnish the vinyl to the board to get a good seal
Remove the transfer material

If you hand-cut your stencil, center the stencil within the border and tape the stencil to the board.

Stenciling the Create Sign

You are now ready to stencil the sign. The video below is a sped-up version of the stenciling I did of this design. If you want some details about how to do the stenciling, watch the video in this blog post: https://www.tracylynncrafts.com/stenciled-tote-bag

Complete!

Your new inspirational sign is now complete and ready for you to hang in your craft room or wherever you want to be inspired to be creative! This also makes a great gift for the creative friends in your life.

Save this to your favorite Pinterest board so you can make it for yourself or as a gift.

Stenciled Graduation Cards You Can Make Yourself

June 13, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo Leave a Comment

Graduation time of year means lots of happy graduates and just as many graduation open houses to attend. This year, I decided to make my own stenciled graduation cards with a graduation cap that matches the graduate’s own graduation cap color.

With these instructions and my free pattern, you can make your own stenciled graduation cards for all the grads you know this year!

Materials and Supplies for Stenciled Graduation Cards

Transparency Film – I keep a box of transparency film on hand for making stencils
Heavy paper or card stock
Acrylic craft paints – Your choice of colors
Stencil brushes – I have a few brands of stencil brushes that I like to use. The one pictured above is by Plaid/Stencil Decor. You will need two 1/2″ to 5/8″ brushes (one for each color) Stencil Brushes
Stencil design – You cut this yourself using a craft machine. The design files are in my free Resource Library
Low-tack or removable tape
Plastic or foam plate (or coated paper plate)
Paper towel

About the Stencil

You can use the .SVG files in my Resource Library or design your own. My design is in two parts: the graduation cap and the text. This is so you can use your own stencil font if you prefer or if you want to use different text. To use my files, download from my Resource Library, unzip to extract the two files, then upload/import the .SVG files into your design software for your craft machine. You can resize the designs. If you want different text or a different font, only upload/import the cap file then use your own stencil font to create the text.

Some design software will try to cut the tassel in a different position than intended. Use whatever feature in your design software instructs the machine to cut as shown vs. cutting for optimal usage of material.

Cut the Stencil

I don’t usually give instructions for cutting because each brand of craft machine is a little different but I wanted to point out some things.

It’s okay to cut the cap and the text from a single sheet of transparency film. There is plenty of space on the sheet for both.
Affix the transparency film to a low-tack or light-grip cutting mat. Transparency film may tear when you try to remove it from higher grip mats.
Set your machine to cut transparency film (you might find this in a “plastics” category of materials).

Prepare to Stencil the Graduation Card

Fold your paper into thirds. I chose to fold into thirds because this fits cash or checks better.

My design will fit paper that has been folded in half, then half again. It can also be resized to fit other paper or blank cards you may already have.

Time to Start Stenciling!

Affix the cap portion of the design to the paper.

Use a low tack tape so you do not tear the paper when you remove the stencil. I often use blue painters tape that I press against my clothes a few times to reduce its tack (because it picks up clothing fibers). Alternately, you can buy tape that is specific to using on paper that is removable. When I was doing a LOT of stenciling on paper, I used Scotch Removable Tape.

If you have read any of my previous stenciling posts, you know I teach the pouncing method of stenciling. This is the method used by most professional stencilers and is the traditional method of stenciling (you can read about my stenciling credentials on the About Tracy Lynn page of my site).

Stenciling is a “dry brush” technique. This means that you do not pre-wet your brush and your brush, when loaded with paint, is nearly dry. This is how you can achieve very crisp lines and no bleed-under.

Get a tiny bit of paint (about the size of two grains of rice) onto the blunt surface of the brush. Swirl it around on your plate to distribute the paint across all the ends of the bristles. Then, tap it onto the paper towel to remove excess paint. Start “pouncing” onto the paper.

The next few pictures are the progression of stenciling the graduation cap followed by a short video showing me stenciling the text using the pouncing technique (Note: there is no sound with the video).

After you finish stenciling the cap, stencil the text. If the cap is a dark color, you can stencil the text in two colors. For example, if the cap is black, stencil the text in white, then shift the stencil diagonally about 1/16th of an inch and stencil in a second color.

Stenciled Graduation Cards are Complete!

When you have completed the stenciling, remove your stencil and the card is finished. Another benefit to a dry brush technique is that the paint is dry when you are finished and you won’t warp the paper from moisture.

The nice thing about cutting this stencil from transparency film is that you can quickly make multiple cards. Transparency film is pretty inexpensive. You can choose to throw it away when you have completed your cards for the year (instead of cleaning and storing it) and cut a new one next year.

Want to remember this? Pin “Stenciled Graduation Cards” to your favorite Pinterest Board.

Stenciled Tudor Rose Box

April 18, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 7 Comments

Several years ago, a friend made me an awesome necklace made of Tudor Rose shaped beads and gave it to me in a wood box. I have been meaning to stencil that box all these years and finally did it this week. To reflect the design of the necklace, I made this a Stenciled Tudor Rose Box. I cut my stencils from vinyl on my Cricut. Because the stencils were single-use stencils I cut them from the vinyl that I get for free.

Materials and Supplies for the Stenciled Tudor Rose Box

Wood “Cigar” Box – You can find these at most craft stores or online
Stencil Pattern – You will have to cut this yourself using a craft machine or by hand. The design files are in my free Resource Library
Stencil Paints – I used craft acrylics
Stencil brushes
Masking tape

About the Multi-Layer Stencil

There are a couple of reasons why it is handy to use a multi-layer stencil.

Color Separation

By placing elements of the stencil design that are all of the same color on a single layer of the stencil, you do not need to mask off parts of the design as you stencil. For the stencil design used in this stenciled Tudor Rose box project, all the green leaves are on one layer, all the red petals are on a separate layer, etc.

Bridgeless Design

Most stenciling is recognizable by the bridges separating the elements of the design. Below is a Tudor rose stencil design with bridges. This could be cut from one layer of stencil. It would be more of a challenge to paint because you’d have mask off areas of the stencil as you do each color.

Bridgeless stenciling is called Theorem Stenciling and is traditionally (19th century) done on velvet/velveteen.

This next image is a Tudor Rose stencil design without bridges.

This is accomplished by using multiple layers of stencils. For this project, these are the four layers of the Stenciled Tudor Rose design.

The files in my Resource Library include all five layers. You may need to adjust the scale of the files once you bring them in to your design software. You can cut these from vinyl, card stock, or stenciling Mylar (3 mil to 10 mil). Vinyl and card stock will be single-use stencils. You can reuse Mylar stencils.

You can cut the designs by hand using the PDF in my Resource Library. The designs in the PDF fit the box I stenciled. If your box is a different size, you will have to scale the images before cutting.

Border Stencil – Adjust the scale of this to fit your box. The dimensions of the top of the wood box in my project is 8.5″ wide by 8.125″ tall.

The four Tudor Rose Stencils need to all be the same size as each other. For my wood box, the outer square of each stencil layer is 5.6″ wide. If you make all four layers 5.6″ wide and retain the aspect ratio, the layers should work correctly for you.

Preparing the Wood Box

Depending on your starting point, you may need to do some work to the box before you begin stenciling. You may need to lightly sand it. You may want to add a light polyurethane coating to it before stenciling to protect the bare wood. My wood box had been a gift, so all of that was already done when I received it.

If you give the wood a coating of some sort before stenciling, let it dry several hours before proceeding.

Stenciling the Tudor Rose Box

Layer 1 – The Fleur de Lis Border

This project has five layers. There are the four layers that make up the stenciled Tudor rose and a layer that creates a border and background by masking the edge of the box with a fleur de lis design.

I wanted the stenciled Tudor rose to be on a painted background and I also wanted a fleur de lis somewhere in this design. I didn’t want the corners of the box painted. That is where the box gets handled the most. Leaving that as the exposed wood would mean less paint wear. The result is this edge mask.

Apply the border stencil to the wood box.

The white you see in the picture above is white vinyl I cut on a Cricut.

I then laid some painters masking tape along each edge before stenciling. I was concerned the bristles could paint the sides of the box as I stenciled.

Stencil the box. I wanted a nice white background so I stenciled two layers of the white.

Remove the masking tape and the stencil.

Let this layer dry for at least an hour.

Layer 2 – The Leaves

Technically, the next four layers can go on in any order. It suits me best to work from the background to the foreground, even though they are all painted directly onto the background color.

I cut all four of the Tudor Rose layers from a single 12″ x 12″ sheet of vinyl.

Center the leaves layer on the box with the triangle-shaped registration mark in the lower left corner. Very lightly touch it to the box so that it doesn’t shift around but don’t “adhere” it yet. Lift up each corner and place a piece of painters tape under each of the four corner registration marks. Now you can lightly adhere the vinyl to the box. This is not to be a permanent application of the vinyl. Do not burnish it too firmly or you may pull off paint as you remove the vinyl.

Since the edges of the leaves are a bit close to the edge of the stencil, it’s a good idea to lay some masking tape along the edges.

Stencil the leaves. Stencil the registration marks in the four corners onto the masking tape.

Remove the stencil but leave the masking tape that is in the four corners where you stenciled the registration marks.

Layer 3 – The Red Petals

Using the layer for the red stencils, line up the registration openings to the stenciled registration marks and apply the stencil.

I had forgotten to cut the stencil mask where the registration holes are on this stencil. The stencil mask I use is not clear. It is more like masking tape. So, I couldn’t line it up very well. I wanted to remove the stencil again and get it perfectly aligned but I was worried I might pull off the green paint from the leaves layer if I tried too many times.

I decided to leave it here so I can show you later how you can correct the stenciling if this happens to you.

Stencil the layer. Do not re-stencil the registration marks. Remove the stencil layer.

Layer 4 – The White Petals

Repeat the steps from the previous layer using the layer for the white petals. If you used a bright white background layer, you could skip this layer. I did this layer anyway to make the white just a little bit more opaque and bright.

layer 5 – The Yellow Center

Repeat the steps from the previous layer using the layer for the yellow center.

Repairs to the Project

Fixing Shifts in the Stenciling

I said I would tell you how to fix it when one of your layers is a little off. I actually have three methods you can use.

Using a craft painter’s paint pen or a fine tip Sharpie, outline the entire design.
Use a fine liner brush to paint a line of the appropriate color of paint over the exposed white line
Re-stencil

For this project, I chose method #3. I cut the red petal stencil layer from some card stock to fix the stenciling.

Once cut, I laid the card stock stencil onto the project, exposing those areas that should have been painted, and re-stenciled them

Fixing Damaged Paint

I don’t usually use vinyl for multi-layer stencils on something like wood (they work great on fabric) because of the risk of pulling off previous layers of paint. However, there are some ways to decrease the chance of this happening, such as tapping the sticky side of the stencil vinyl onto a short-nap cotton fabric to decrease the stickiness (because the vinyl grabs some of the cotton fibers). That has risks of its own because you can get the fibers into your project.

I managed to pull up some of the background paint with one of my vinyl layers. I touched it up by using a small paint brush and tapping it over the damaged paint.

Embellishing the Design

Embellishing the design is optional. You may get to this point and decide it is done. I wanted to do a little more touch-up and some hand-finishing of the design. The remainder of this was done with liner brushes.

Once complete, I applied a couple of coats of a matte spray-on polyurethane to protect the paint.

What did you learn?

Did you know about multi-layer stencils?
Have you ever heard of Theorem Stenciling?
Have you ever hand-embellished your stenciling projects?

If this inspired you to try something new, come on over to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TracyLynnCrafts) and share pictures of your project.

I hope you learned something new from following along with this Stenciled Tudor Rose craft. I can’t wait to show my friend how I adorned the box she gave me. 🙂

Remember to pin this to your favorite crafting board so you can remember to try this project!

Royally Etched and Painted Crown Bottles

March 30, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 9 Comments

After a party at our house a few months ago, the Crown Royal bottle was finished. What a cool-looking bottle, right? I decided it was not going into the recycling. I headed over to Pinterest to see what everyone else was doing with these bottles and came up with a plan for an etched and painted Crown Royal bottle. In the months since that party, the other size bottle has also been emptied and now I can make a matched set of etched and painted Crown Royal bottles. The etching stencils were cut on my Cricut from the vinyl I get for free since they were to be thrown away.

Materials and Supplies

Empty Crown Royal Bottle(s)
Vinyl Stencil (See info below)
Glass Etching Compound: Armor Etch
Sponge Brush
Rubbing Alcohol
Paper Towel
Tape
Glass Enamel Paints
Paint Brushes

About Some of the Supplies

Vinyl Stencil: In this project, I assume you have access to a craft machine, such as the Cricut, to cut your own vinyl stencil.

This post does not describe how to cut vinyl on a craft machine. I assume you are familiar with your machine and design software. The .SVG file format seems to be one of the most universally accepted formats. If you have a new Cricut and want to learn how to use it, check out the Love Your Cricut Mini Course at the JenniferMaker site.

Whether it is your own machine or a friend’s machine, I have provided the .SVG files (containing the two sizes) for the fleur-de-lis design used in this etched and painted Crown Royal bottle project. The files are in my Resource Library. Note, you may need to resize the shape after uploading to your design software.

Glass Etching Compound: The only brand I have ever used is Armor Etch. I can find it at my local craft stores and online.

Glass Enamel Paints: The common brands of craft acrylics usually have an “enamel” paint that can be used on glass and ceramic. The ones I used in this project are Folk Art.

About the Design

The design for this project has two sizes to fit both the small and large size Crown Royal bottles. I set up the design with the outline for that flat empty space where the label used to be specifically to help in placement of the vinyl stencil.

I have only tested the design in the Cricut Design Space but all the craft machines indicate they accept .SVG files.

If you are only cutting one size, when you add the file to your project, ungroup the images and delete the size you don’t need.

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Etching Phase

The first part of this project is to etch the fleur-de-lis design into the glass bottles.

Prepare the Glass

Remove the labels from the glass. I do this by soaking in hot water with dish soap overnight. In the morning, the labels peel off. I then use a scrubber to remove any glue residue.

Use rubbing alcohol on the surface where you plan to apply the vinyl stencil. This will remove any oils from handling the glass. You want a good seal of the vinyl against the glass.

Apply the Vinyl Stencil

I made this design to fit exactly into the space on two sizes of Crown Royal bottles. Before you cut the vinyl stencil, check to see if you need to resize the stencil in your design software. The outer edge of the vinyl fits into the space to help with alignment.

Press the vinyl onto the glass and smooth from the center to the outer edges. Use a burnishing tool (or the edge of a credit card) to make a good seal between the vinyl and the glass. Burnish in multiple directions to help get a good seal.

Repeat the application for the other bottle.

Peel off the transfer mask.

You will want to apply masking tape around the edge of the vinyl.

Because of the way I designed it, the fleur-de-lis is close to the edge of the vinyl. You won’t want any of the etching compound to get onto the glass except through the holes of the stencil.

Apply the Etching Compound

I use a cheap foam brush that I have trimmed to fit just inside the opening of the etching compound bottle.

Brush the etching compound onto the stencil covering all the openings of the stencil.

Let it sit for one whole minute — these are the instructions for the Armor Etch brand of etching cream (follow the instructions for whatever product you use). If you go over the minute, that’s okay. I once left some on a different project for five minutes and had no issues. You will need to leave it on for at least one minute. At the end of that minute, rinse off the etching compound under running water.

Reveal the Etching

Peel off the tape then peel off the stencil.

Give it another quick rinse. Once dry, the etching will be more pronounced.

You have completed the first phase of the etched and painted Crown Royal bottle.

You can choose to stop here and enjoy the etched glass or you can move on to the painting part of this project.

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Painting Phase

It is now time to paint the glass bottles.

Glass is a very smooth surface. When you brush the paint onto the glass, you will see brush stokes.

I intend to paint the bottoms of the glass so I need to work on the bottles one side at a time.

To create an opaque look will require multiple coats of paint.

If you want to cover the entire bottle with paint, mask off the etched area and the threads for the bottle cap and use an enamel spray paint. I wanted to accent the points at the top of the design, which meant painting by hand, and multiple coats. I just left the bottles and paint sitting out in my work-space. After painting a coat, I’d clean my brushes then go work on a different project and come back for another coat of paint. Eventually, I got the bottles painted to the degree I wanted.

Accenting the Etched and Painted Crown Royal Bottle

The blue paint is just my base coat. I wanted to highlight some of the designs in the glass by accenting with white and gold paint.

For the diamond shapes molded into the glass, I accented those in white. Instead of using a brush, which would have required multiple coats, I used a squeeze bottle. I have these little squeeze bottles with fine tips for applying gutta onto silk (I’ll write a post on silk painting soon).

Here is a close-up of the white accent paint as applied with the squeeze bottle.

With the gold paint, I added some more accents until I decided they were done.

Setting the Paint

The craft enamels are set if you let them set for somewhere around a month. Or, you can bake them according to your paint manufacturer’s instructions. Set the painted glass on a oven-safe pan and place in a cool oven. Do not keep the plastic bottle caps on the bottles while baking. Do NOT pre-heat the oven. Once in the oven, set the temperature to whatever is recommended by the brand of paint you used. This allows the glass to come up to temperature slowly. Bake for the amount of time indicated by the brand of paint you used. When the time has passed, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. You want the glass to cool off slowly. I usually do this at night so I can go to bed with the oven cooling down and I’m not tempted to go open the oven door too soon.

Once the glass is cool, remove it from the oven. I usually give it a quick hand-wash and then they are ready to use.

Enjoy Your New Crafting Skills!

By making the etched and painted Crown Royal bottles, you now know how to do two new crafts! You know how to do glass etching and glass painting. Both etching and painting on glass can be applied to other craft projects for home improvement and for gifts. One year for Christmas, I etched the underside of a 9×13 glass pan for each of my daughters. The etching was their first names and could be read as you looked into the pan – which meant the stencils had to be cut in reverse. I have etched designs into the glass of picture frames. I have painted wine glasses and the back side of glass plates.

You can pin this post so you can remember it when you want to etch and paint your own crown bottles.

Fast and Easy Way to Rescue and Repair Your Stencil!

March 18, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 1 Comment

Did you know you can repair your stencil if you damage it?

Most stencilers have accidentally damaged a stencil at some point.

If you cut your own stencil and your blade slipped, you do not have to start over.
If, while cleaning your stencil, you tore or bent part of it, you don’t have to throw it away.

In this short tutorial, I intentionally damage a stencil. Yes, really. 🙂 You can see in this picture that I cut through this stencil, detaching the bridge between the leaves in the design.

I will now teach you how you can repair your stencil.

(NOTE: This post contains affiliate links to some of the items I used in this project. That means you will help to support my blog if you make a purchase after clicking the links. There is no added cost to you!)

Step 1 – Don’t Panic!

Seriously, it’s just a stencil and it is repairable.

Breathe!

Don’t let the damage stress you. Walk away from it for a few minutes if you need to. My first damaged stencil almost made me cry and I threw it away because I didn’t know I could repair it. I don’t want you to go through that.

Again… breathe. It’s okay. We can fix this!

If you were in the middle of cleaning the stencil, cover it with wet paper towels. This will keep the paint from drying further.
If you were cutting the stencil, put the cap on the blade and set it down. Go do something distracting and de-stressing for a few minutes.
If you were in the middle of stenciling, walk away for a few minutes and take your brush with you. Wrap the brush in a damp paper towel to keep the paint from drying out.

Step 2 – Assess the Damage

How bad is it?

It is very likely you can repair your stencil. I have torn stencils while cleaning. It usually happens when I am in a hurry. Sometimes it is not a tear but a section that gets a fold in it. The damage is usually just a small section, like one of the fragile bridges.

Sometimes I over-cut a stencil. That happens when I have been cutting for too long without taking breaks and my hands get tired. Remember to take breaks. Rest your hands. Stretch your hands, shoulders and neck. Focus your eyes on distant objects. An over-cut usually means you cut across a bridge or beyond a corner. Damage from cutting usually isn’t severe because you’re doing such small movements with the blade.

I damaged a stencil while actually stenciling only once. It was on fabric, a sweatshirt, which has some “give” even when stabilized. I was using a swirling technique instead of a pouncing technique and I bent a bridge.

Unless a pet or a small child has swiped your stencil, the damage is likely in a very small area and you can repair your stencil.

Step 3 – Start with a Clean and Dry Stencil

Most damage happens while cleaning.

Do your best to get the stencil clean and make sure it is completely dry.

I have found that I get the best cleaning results when I soak the stencil with Simple Green. I lay the stencil in the sink (or in the shower/bathtub for large stencils) and spray Simple Green on the stencil. Cover it with paper towel and soak the paper towel with more Simple Green. Let it set for half an hour. Pull off the paper towel and use your stenciling brush with light to medium pressure in a swirling motion to remove the paint. Apply more Simple Green as needed. Rinse thoroughly.

Here is a video of the stencil I used to make the Stenciled Damask Floorcloth. My life was pretty busy when I made that floorcloth and it took me four days to stencil it. I never cleaned the stencil until the end of the project. This video shows you how easily the paint came off after soaking it in Simple Green for half an hour.

Step 4 – Repair Your Stencil

Using a sturdy clear tape such as heavy duty shipping tape, cut a piece to a size that will cover the damaged area.

Carefully affix the tape to the stencil to cover only the damaged area.

Turn the stencil over and do the same thing on the other side to sandwich the damage between two layers of clear tape.

Using a firm edge of something (such as a credit card) burnish/rub the two layers of tape to the stencil on both sides.

Using an X-Acto knife, cut the tape away along the edges of the stencil openings.

If the damage is a fold and it doesn’t look like it will lie flat you can either try gently folding it in the opposite direction or cutting it out completely and let the tape take the place of the section you cut out.

Step 5 – Finishing

Your stencil is now repaired! You can now get back to your project. When cleaning your repaired stencil, it is possible your tape may detach from the stencil. If this happens, remove the tape or cut off the part that has peeled away and repeat the repair steps in this post.

P.S.

I wrote earlier “Unless a pet or small child has swiped your stencil, the damage is likely in a very small area.”

What if the damage really is much more catastrophic than a small tear?

If the stencil is beyond repair, how do you feel about buying it again?
Did you cut the stencil yourself? You could cut it again. Yes, that’s frustrating but you can do it.
Did you get far enough into the stenciling that you could leave the stenciling as-is and do something else to accent the stenciling?

Try not to give up. The finished project will be beautiful because it is a part of you!

Do you want to remember this post, just in case you accidentally damage one of your stencils? You can pin it to your favorite Pinterest board!

Love Your Home! …with These Easy to Make Stenciled HOME Panels

March 4, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 8 Comments

These stenciled HOME panels are something you can make for your home in a weekend! They also make great house-warming gifts. Because these stencils were to be single-use stencils, I cut them from vinyl that I get for free.

Materials and Supplies to Make the Stenciled HOME Panels

Four (4) Square Stretched Canvas Panels – such as these 10″x10″ panels
Stencil Designs (in my Resource Library)
Basecoat Paint – You pick the color
Stencil Paint – You pick the color
Paint brush
Stencil Brush – such as Plaid’s The Natural 3/4″ Stencil Brush
Painter’s Tape
Palette (foam or plastic plate)
Paper towels

About the Stretched Canvas Panels

You can use whatever size panels you want for this or similar projects. The stretched canvas panels are pre-primed canvas stretched over a wood frame.

What I like about these is they have depth. They stick out from the wall. They are not flat boards. You could use the flat canvas boards and put them in frames. They might look very interesting in four different frames you pick up at a garage sale or thrift store.

For this Stenciled HOME Panels project, I used 10″ x 10″ stretched canvas panels.

About the Stencils

You will cut your own stencils to make this project. In my free Resource Library, I have provided the patterns so you can either hand-cut your stencils or you can use the .SVG files to cut the stencils from vinyl on your craft machine, such as the Cricut. The stencil files contain the letters H, O, M, E, the silhouette of the cow head (the same one I used in this project), and a heart. You could choose to replace any of the letters with something that suits you better. Have fun with it. This is YOUR craft!

Use a low-tack vinyl for your stencils. You want the stencils to peel off without taking off the basecoat paint.

If you want to learn how to acquire vinyl for free when you need vinyl for a stencil (that you will just throw away anyway), you can read my post about how to talk to a sign shop to acquire their vinyl scraps. They throw away scraps that are larger than your cutting mat.

This post does not describe how to cut vinyl on a craft machine. I assume you are familiar with your machine and design software. The .SVG file format is the most universally accepted format. If you have a new Cricut and want to learn how to use it, check out the Love Your Cricut Mini Course at the JenniferMaker site.

Download the files and bring them into your designer application. You may need to scale the files in your design software to prepare for the cutting. You may remove the registration marks from the files by ungrouping the elements and deleting the registration marks.

Whether you plan to hand-cut your own stencils or cut them from vinyl in your craft machine, you will have to scale the design to fit the size panels you choose. The designs are set for 10″ x 10″ panels.

For this Stenciled HOME Panels project, I used stencils cut from vinyl.

About the Paints

I made these stenciled HOME panels for one of my daughters and her husband who recently moved into a new home. She knew I was making these and chose the colors and the cow silhouette for the “O” in HOME.

The basecoat I used is flat white latex wall paint.

The stencil paint color I used is Burnt Sienna.

About the Stencil Brush

When selecting a stencil brush, you want one that is a size appropriate to your project. What I mean is you want to select the stencil brush diameter that best fits the size of the openings in the stencil. If you have a stencil with large openings, you need to use a stencil brush with a larger diameter, such as a 3/4″ brush. For most of my stenciling projects I use 3/4″ or 5/8″ stencil brushes. My own rule of thumb is that I want the diameter of the brush to be close to the size of most the openings in the stencil. This is a very loose rule because not all the openings are the same size. There are some projects for which I use multiple brushes in varying sizes.

Step 1 – Preparing the Canvas Panels

The first step in making the stenciled HOME panels is to basecoat the canvas. The panels come pre-primed with gesso. Gesso is a combination of plaster of Paris or some other whitening compound in a glue. It has been the traditional base for painting for centuries.

Using a regular paint brush and the basecoat paint, cover the front surface and all four sides/edges of the panels. You can do as many layers of basecoat as you feel you need for your project. Because the gesso is white and my basecoat is white, I only did one coat. When I made my stenciled damask floorcloth, I painted two coats of dark blue latex wall paint as the basecoat.

Let the basecoat dry completely. Overnight will be best. You don’t want your vinyl stencils pulling off your basecoat.

Step 2 – Applying the Stencils

There are a few techniques to getting your stencils onto your project. As you do more stenciling projects, you’ll start leaning toward whichever techniques works best for you.

Vinyl Stencils

Position the stencils so that they are centered on the panels. The .SVG files provide a registration mark on each of the four sides that you can choose to include in your cut to help in aligning the stencils.

I used two different alignment techniques so you can see a couple of ways to do this.

Alignment Technique 1

This method better if your vinyl is not the same size as the panels.

Place a piece of painter’s tape at the approximate center of each edge of the front surface of the canvas panels.
Measure the panels to find the center of each side. Mark the centers on the tape.
Align your registration marks to the center line marks you drew on the tape.

Alignment Technique 2

This method works great if your vinyl is close to the same size as the panels.

Cut off the four corners of the vinyl.
Look down over the vinyl to align those cutouts to the corners of the panels.

Lightly burnish the vinyl in place. don’t press too hard. You want this vinyl to come off.

Remove the masking/transfer medium.

If you included the register marks in the cutting of your vinyl stencil, cover these openings with a piece of tape so you don’t accidentally paint through them.

Mylar Stencils

If you hand-cut your stencils from Mylar or transparency film, make sure you have marked the centers of the design on your stencil. You can do this with a permanent marker.

Place a piece of painter’s tape at the approximate center of each edge of the front surface of the canvas panels.
Measure the panels to find the center of each side. Mark the centers on the tape.
Align your center line marks with the center line marks you made on the four edges of the front of the canvas.
Tape the stencils to the canvas panels.

Step 3 – Stenciling

When stenciling on the stretched canvas panels, you will find it helpful to put something under the canvas that fits inside the frame. I often use a book for this purpose. You won’t want the canvas flexing and stretching out while stenciling. Having something that fits inside the frame will allow you to stencil on the canvas without stretching it.

Squeeze out a dollop of paint onto the palette.

Lightly touch the end of the bristles onto the paint. Touch onto not push into. Stenciling is a dry brush technique. You will NEVER dip a stencil brush into water until it’s time to clean your brushes.

On another part of the palette, swirl the bristles around to evenly distribute the paint on the ends of the bristles.

Instead of a series of pictures, I made a video of me stenciling the letter H. Don’t worry, I sped up the middle part of the video so it is about half a minute long. Watching the whole thing in real-time would be boring. 🙂

Continue until you have completely filled the stenciling area and the paint application is even. You may choose to do a second coat. For my stenciled damask floor cloth I used a dark blue base coat and stenciled in white. With the white on dark, I wanted the white to be very striking so I did two coats.

Repeat for all your panels.

Step 4 – The Big Reveal!

I have been stenciling for over 25 years and this part never gets old! It’s so exciting to see the beautiful design revealed.

Very carefully remove the stencils from the panels.

If you hand-cut your stencils, remove the tape and the stencils, then clean your stencils for using again in the future. Again, these stenciled HOME panels make great house-warming gifts.

Now you get to hang your stenciled panels on the wall. Hang them horizontally, vertically, diagonally, stacked in a square… however you like. No matter how you place them, you now have a beautiful set of stenciled HOME panels with colors that match your home!

Did you make this?

If you made this, I would love to see what you did, see your colors, anything different you did to make it uniquely yours, and how it looks in your home. Join me on Facebook and share how you made these stenciled HOME panels!

You can pin this post to your favorite home decor or crafting board to help you find this project when you’re ready to DIY!

Stenciled Floorcloth in a Beautiful Damask

February 25, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 5 Comments

You can make a beautiful stenciled floorcloth in just a weekend!

Stenciled floorcloths are painted canvas to lay on your floor. They can be plain or you can decorate them to make pieces of art to be walked on. This is a project you can complete in a weekend.

Materials and Tools for a Stenciled Floorcloth

Materials

Floorcloth canvas: Using a pre-primed 2’x3′ canvas will save you some time. You can make your own if you need a different size.
Stencil: I love the look of Damask and wanted to try it on a floorcloth for my home office
Basecoat Paint: Latex wall paint (if you want to match or complement the color of your walls) or Artist Acrylics
Stencil Paint: Artists Acrylics
(optional) Polyurethane: to protect the stenciling

Tools

Paint brush (for painting on the basecoat)
1/2″ to 3/4″ Stencil Brush
Tape
Tape Measure
Pencil and a non-marking eraser
Thin string or thread
Palette
Paper Towels

Prepare the Floorcloth Canvas

The day before you start on the project, unroll the floorcloth canvas and place it on a flat surface, curved-side down. You may want to weight the corners with books. The pre-primed floorcloths are primed so that the work surface is the side that is rolled to the inside. You want to let the floorcloth relax so it will lie flat.

When it has relaxed sufficiently, working on a protected surface, apply one to two coats of your basecoat paint, allowing each coat to dry before proceeding. The basecoat only needs to be applied to the work surface side of the floorcloth.

For my project, I used the blue paint that I put on the walls in the built-in sofa and bed section of my home office.

Measure for the Stencil

Find the horizontal and vertical centers of the floorcloth. Find the centers on each edge. I have found that these are not always perfectly square. You can mark these lightly with a pencil directly on the floorcloth or place a small piece of tape at the centers and mark on the tape, as shown in the picture.

Tape string between each of the centers to create center lines across the whole floorcloth.

Lay the stencil on the floorcloth. Use the center lines marked on the stencil to align to the strings. You will need to lift the stencil as you shift it around because the strings will shift as you move the stencil against them.

When you are as close to perfect alignment as you can get, tape the stencil to the floorcloth. Remove the tape from one end of a string. Pull up the other end and pull the string out from under the stencil.

Start Stenciling

Squeeze out a dollop of the stencil paint onto the palette. Lightly touch the end of the bristles onto the paint. Touch onto not push into the paint. On another part of the palette, swirl the bristles around to evenly distribute the paint on the ends of the bristles.

Hold your brush perpendicular to the stencil and, with a pouncing motion, start tapping the ends of the bristles onto the surface. You will need to go back to your dollop of paint to reload the brush when the paint application begins to fade. The pouncing technique with a dry brush allows you to stencil to achieve nice crisp edges and no bleed under the stencil.

Seriously! Do the pouncing! Here is a close-up of my stenciling. I took this picture in direct sunlight and no other photo touch-ups except to add my watermark.

Continue stenciling until you have completed the stencil.

Because I chose to do white on a dark color, I did a second coat of the white to give it a more striking contrast.

Reposition the Stencil

When you have finished the whole stencil, lift it off the floorcloth and reposition it. You may need to remove the tape you used for marking your center lines.

Where you reposition is up to your own artistic preference. Alternately, you can consider this to be the end of your project. It’s your project. You get to decide! If moving on, like I did, continue stenciling and reposition when necessary. If you plan to stencil over the edges, be sure to work on a protected surface.

When complete, erase your pencil marks or remove any remaining tape on which you made pencil marks.

Finished Damask Stenciled Floorcloth!

Protect the Floorcloth

If your stenciled floorcloth won’t get much (or any) traffic or if you plan to hang it on a wall, you can stop here. If you expect to place it in a medium or high traffic area, you can apply a protective coat of polyurethane. I prefer to spray the first coat of polyurethane for a thin first coat. I then follow it with one to two thicker coats that I brush on. Mostly it depends on how much traffic it will get.

You will want to place a non-skid pad under the floorcloth if you are using it on a smooth surface.

Clean-up

Remember to clean your stencils and brushes. I soak my stencils in Simple Green for half an hour then lightly brush off the paint with my stencil brush. Here is a video of me cleaning this stencil.

For More Help and Tips with Stenciling…

If you want to remember this project so you can do it yourself, remember to pin it to one of your favorite boards on Pinterest!

Cut the Tote Bag Stencil – DIY and Reuse!

February 16, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo Leave a Comment

In this tutorial, you will cut the tote bag stencil that you can use to stencil the same design in the Stenciled Tote Bag post. The design was one that I drew and had professionally laser cut when I taught a class at the annual stenciling convention many years ago (1997… 1998?). The stencil is not one that is commercially available. But you can have the design by cutting it yourself. This is a single-layer stencil design. I will have more instructions in the future on making and using multi-layer stencils.

The Design

The design provided in my resource library is a one-quarter design because the full design will not fit on an 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet of transparency film. I will teach you how to use the one-quarter design for your complete project. This will be a stencil you can add to, or use to start, your collection and reuse!

First things first, you need to cut the tote bag stencil.

Hand Cutting or Craft-Machine Cutting

This post is specifically about hand-cutting the stencil. If you haven’t tried hand-cutting stencils, I recommend you go through my tutorial on cutting your own stencils. The tutorial includes some video clips and has links to practice sheets. I go into some detail about the materials and technique in that tutorial.

If you have a craft machine, such as the Cricut, I have provided the one-quarter design and the full design in .SVG format in my Free Resource Library. You may need to scale and flatten the design once you bring it into your design software.

Materials and Tools to Hand-Cut the Stencil

I go into details about stencil cutting tools and materials in my stencil cutting basics tutorial.

Transparency Film (or 3-5 mil Mylar)
Cutting Tool such as an X-Acto Knife
Cutting Surface such as 1/4″ Tempered Glass or Self-Healing Mat
Stencil Design (print one copy from my Free Resource Library)
Tape

Preparation

Place your cutting surface in front of you. I prefer to use tempered glass.

Take the printed design (page 2) and cut out some notches along edges of the paper. I do this when the design is the same size as the stencil film. In this example, the design is printed on 8-1/2″ x 11″ paper and the stencil film is 8-1/2″ x 11″ transparency film. This keeps the design from shifting around as you cut the stencil.

Place the printed design, design-side down onto a sheet of transparency film. If you are using Mylar, tape onto the matte side of the Mylar.

Attach the printed design to the transparency film by taping the paper to the transparency at the cutouts.

Before moving to the cutting section, I want to answer a question you may be thinking. Why not just run the transparency film through my printer? That’s fine for practice pieces, pieces you will not use as actual stencils. Any toner left on the stencil will flake off into your stencil paint when you begin stenciling and you will have black speckles on your finished project. Yeah, I learned that the hard way. Learn from my mistakes. 🙂

Cut the Tote Bag Stencil

The best method for cutting stencils is to cut the smallest pieces first. If you cut the largest pieces first, it reduces the structural integrity of the stencil film which allows it to potentially shift around on you as you cut other areas of the stencil. For this design, the last pieces you will cut will be the large arc shapes. On page three of the design sheets, I have marked a recommended order to cut the tote bag stencil.

For curved lines, turn the film as needed. NEVER LIFT YOUR BLADE when working in one of the design elements. This will result in jagged edges. Again, there are instructions (with practice sheets) and some video for how to cut stencils in my stencil cutting tutorial.

For those of you reading this who are still new to stencil-cutting, I thought it might be helpful to watch me cut out one whole piece of the stencil. It is one of more curvy parts of the design. There is no voice-over on the video. It’s just me cutting it and the video is almost 3 minutes long.

Once you have all the pieces cut, you can remove the design sheet from the transparency film.

Stenciling

The design you just cut is only one-quarter of the whole design. This section will show you how to line up the stencil on another section of your project three more times to complete the full design.

Positioning

Because this is a one-quarter design, you will need to mark your project for placement. I’m doing this project again on the other side of the same tote bag I used in the Stenciled Tote Bag post.

Find the vertical and horizontal centers of the project – the tote bag in this example. I used straight pins to mark the centers.

The stencil you cut is only one-quarter of the pattern. In the picture below, I have marked the horizontal and vertical centers of the whole design.

You will need to place the stencil on the upper left corner of the tote bag so that the whole stencil design center lines align with the tote bag center line marks. Once aligned, tape it down. I had to drop the contrast on this picture so you can see the clear cut stencil on the tote bag.

Stencil this portion of the design onto the tote bag. You can go back and re-read my post about stenciling the tote bag and watch the videos showing the pouncing technique. When you finish the stenciling, lift the stencil off the tote bag.

About “Registration” of the Alignment

Shift to the upper right portion of the tote bag and rotate the stencil 90 degrees clockwise. Align it again with your center line marks and use the overlap elements to help align the stencil. In the picture below, I have arrows pointing to the two sections of the stencil that are the same as the part you already stenciled. You can use these as “registration” to help you line up the stencil.

Masking Areas of the Stencil

Press the tape into place and begin stenciling. You do NOT want to stencil in those sections that are over the part you already stenciled. You mask those areas by using a piece of paper, low-tack tape, an old piece of stencil, or anything that will keep paint from being applied in those openings. The reason you should mask those is that is it not likely that the pieces you cut out are cut exactly the same.

Complete the stenciling in this section.

Continue Positioning and Stenciling

Shift to the lower right portion of the tote bag and rotate the stencil 90 degrees clockwise. Align it again with the previous stenciling and your center line marks. Begin stenciling.

When the third section is complete, shift to the lower left portion of the tote bag and rotate the stencil 90 degrees clockwise. Align it again and stencil.

Remove the stencil and you now have a completed stenciled tote bag!

Here I show both sides of the tote bag, the side I just completed and the side I did in the original post about stenciling on a tote bag.

P.S.

I mentioned that I used this stencil design for a class that I taught at a stenciling convention. In that class, I had the students stencil gutta onto a 12″x 12″ silk handkerchief. If you don’t know, gutta is a rubber-based product that is used as a resist in silk painting. After the gutta had set for a minimum of 30 minutes, they got to use silk dyes in any colors they wanted to paint the handkerchief. The areas where they stenciled the gutta were untouched by the dyes. I wish I had pictures to share with you from that class. I might just have to recreate that as another blog post, someday. 🙂

You can pin this blog post to Pinterest to help you find it again when you want to remember to do this project or to share with your friends!

Cut Your Own Stencils – The Basics

February 13, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 2 Comments

Materials and Tools to Cut Your Own Stencils

These are the basic materials and tools needed to cut your own stencils. I go into some detail about the first three. In this tutorial, for the design you will use my Cut Your Own Stencils Practice Sheets from my free Resource Library.

Stencil Film
Cutting Tool
Cutting Surface
Design

Stencil Film

The material from which you cut your own stencils may depend on what you are stenciling. Below are my preferred films for stenciling. There are many things you can use as a stencil. Once, in a pinch when I needed to do an impromptu demo for a friend, I cut a stencil out of the clear plastic packaging for some product she had just bought.

Vinyl

For single-use stenciling projects, you can cut your own stencils from vinyl on a craft machine such as the Cricut. Vinyl stencils are single-use because, when you peel them off your project, they will distort and likely tear. I also use vinyl I get for free when I make single-use stencils. If do not have a craft machine and do not know anyone who has one, you can take a design file in vector format (such as .SVG) to a sign shop. It won’t be cheap but they will scale it to the size you need and cut it. They can easily cut multiples, too. One of the benefits of using vinyl is that it adheres to the project which keeps it from shifting around and reduces bleed-under for those who overload their brushes or use paint rollers. Additional benefits of vinyl stencils is the ability to use them on curved surfaces and there is no need to clean them after the project.

Mylar

The best thickness for Mylar stencils is 3 to 5 mil Mylar. A “mil” is one one-thousandths of an inch. The 5 mil is thicker than 3 mil. Any thicker than 5 mil and it gets much harder to cut. Any thinner than 3 mil and the stencil is too fragile. Mylar is fairly durable and cleans well enough. The thin material is great for any stenciling technique. The film is glossy on one side (the side you stencil on) and matte on the back side (the side facing your project). It is sort of milky-white and translucent enough that you can easily see your project. The image below shows a sheet of Mylar over one of my practice sheets.

I just looked on Amazon and found 4 mil Mylar in sheets and rolls:

Transparency Film

Transparency film is the 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheets of clear film used with overhead projectors. The film is completely clear which makes positioning very easy. The film is not as durable as Mylar and easier to tear. It is also inexpensive and easy to find at your local office supply stores. It cleans about the same as Mylar.

Cutting Tool

The cut your own stencils, the best tool I have used is an X-Acto Knife with a new #11 blade. They make the knives with easy-to-grip handles. The one at this link is the one I find the most comfortable for me to hold. I also keep a package of new blades handy. Dull blades do not cut well.

I do not use a swivel knife. It never seems to offer the kind of control that the standard knife gives. When working with a sharp knife, you want control, which means better safety. Change the blade when the cutting isn’t going as smoothly as it was when you started with a new blade. It is cheaper to change out the blade than to throw away a whole stencil because you botched it.

NOTE: Please use safety measures when working with these knives. They are very sharp. If you have little ones around, don’t cut your stencils when they are running around or peering over the edge of the table to get a closer look. Slips can happen and you don’t want to accidentally cut anyone.

Cutting Surface

I have cut on many surfaces and my preference is tempered glass. If you use glass, make sure that it is 1/4″ thick and that the edges are smooth (or cover them with tape so you don’t get cut by the glass). If you have a shop in your area that sells glass panes, they likely also sell tempered glass. You don’t need a big piece. The glass I have is 10″ x 12″ and I have never felt the need for something larger.

Other surfaces you can use to cut your own stencils include:

Self-healing mats
Old magazines
Thick un-corrugated cardboard

Magazines and cardboard will dull your blade much faster. I use them in a pinch when I do not have access to my own tools.

Do not use wood or plastic cutting boards. As you cut, your blade gets caught either in the wood grain or in a previous cut on the board and your blade will follow that grain or cut instead of the design. It is very frustrating. Do not use the glass kitchen cutting boards. They are bumpy which forces the blade to a different path than the design.

Design

For this tutorial, you will work with the practice designs, available in my free Resource Library.

For your own stencil cutting projects, you can use your own design. I will have another tutorial about basic stencil design.

Time for Some Practice Work!

Download my Cut Your Own Stencils Practice Sheets from my free Resource Library and print sheets 2 and 3 for starters. The pictures in this tutorial show how to cut your own stencils from transparency film. The technique is the same for Mylar but requires a bit more effort.

Sheet 2 is all straight lines and corners
Sheet 3 is simple curves

The practice sheets are the same size as the transparency film so you need to cut some notches out of the paper practice sheets.

Lay practice sheet 2, print side down, onto the transparency film and tape to the transparency film at the notches.

Turn this over and place onto your cutting surface.

How to Hold the Knife

To cut your own stencils, you need good control of the knife. Not everyone will hold the X-Acto knife in exactly the same way. In the years I have taught stencil cutting, most have found this to work best for them. But, you know your body, your strength and your dexterity better than anyone. This is just a guide.

When I cut, I don’t hold the handle with my fingers, I hold the blade with my fingers. I know, weird, right? This gives me the power and control to do very fine cutting. I had a woman tell me once that she had never been able to cut her own stencils because of her arthritis but was able to do so (for short periods) with my technique.

Below is a stencil I cut years ago. The ruler is provided for scale so you can see how finely you can cut a stencil.

Starting the Cut

I should preface this section that I am right-handed and will use terms for right-handedness. You can reverse the hands/directions if you are left-handed.

To cut your own stencils, it is easiest to start at a corner. Position the design so that your first cut is along a line that is at a 45 degree angle to edge of the table.

Push the tip of the blade into a corner and through the transparency film. Don’t start “near” the corner. Get right into the corner. You don’t need to start exactly perpendicular to the plane of the work surface but a straight-down push will get you very close to the exact corner.

Angle the blade down so that the handle of the blade is no longer perpendicular to the work surface. This angle should be close to 45 degrees to the work surface. Draw the blade to the right and toward you along that approximately 45 degree angle. Try not to draw directly toward you. If you slip, you can hurt yourself. Do not draw the blade away from you. You will not have the power and control in that direction. That 45 degree angle gives you some of the power and control of pulling toward you plus the safety of not hurting yourself.

Draw the blade toward next corner while pushing firmly down into the material. Stop when you get to the corner but do not lift the blade out of the transparency file. Angle it back up to nearly perpendicular to the work surface. The tip of the blade will be like a pin in the material.

Continuing the Cut

Rotate the design so that the next cutting motion will be in the same direction. You want to always be cutting a little toward you and a little away from you. Repeat the cutting going from one corner to the next until you end up where you started.

It’s not easy trying to explain all this in words so I also have a video below that shows the cutting of a square.

First cut is Complete!

You have now cut a square out of transparency film. Lift the square out of the film. If you didn’t push hard enough as you were cutting, it may not pop out easily. If that’s the case, carefully set the blade down in the cut and gently cut where it seems to be attached. It’s okay if you cut through the paper.

Cut the rest of the shapes on Page 2 of the practice sheets. Print more sheets if you want more practice (or draw your own shapes!).

Don’t worry if you need to rest your hand periodically. It’s a good idea to set the blade down every few minutes and stretch your fingers, hands, and shoulders.

Sometimes when I cut straight lines, I use a metal ruler as a guide. I DON’T use the ones with a cork backing because that leaves a gap under which the blade could wander (unless I use it upside down). If you use a ruler or some other straight edge, don’t use plastic or wood because your knife will cut into it.

Cutting Curves

Cutting on a curve is a little different. The way you hold the knife is the same. What is different is that your motion as you cut is an arc instead of a straight line. And, this is what takes some practice, depending on how much the curved line curves, you can move the stencil as you cut.

I utilize rotation from my fingers, from my wrist, from my elbow and from my shoulder (depending on the size of the curve). I also rotate the stencil film counter-clockwise with my left hand while cutting clockwise with my right hand.

The best way for me to explain this is to show you in this video.

And then, the challenge of cutting a full circle!

Keep Practicing!

Cutting your own stencils takes practice to get good at it. If you need to, practice on paper first to get used to this type of cutting and learn to keep your blade smoothly on the line. Work up to it too. If you overdo the cutting, you can strain your hand – from personal experience. The very best piece of advice I have for stencil cutting is Practice, Practice, Practice. The more you practice, the better you will get. Continue to use my practice sheets until you feel comfortable cutting sheets 2 and 3. Then move on to the more complex shapes on pages 4 and the smaller shapes on page 5.

When you are cutting your stencils, start with the smallest elements first and work up to the biggest elements. Cutting the big elements reduces the structural integrity of the stencil film to a much greater degree than the smaller elements. You want to maintain as much of the strength of the film for as long as possible.

If you want to park this post where you can find it again or share it with others, Pin this DIY tutorial on how to Cut Your Own Stencils to your favorite Pinterest board.

stenciling

Day 18 of the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

Materials and Supplies

Cutting the Stencil

Surface Preparation

Apply the Stencil

Stenciling

Assemble

Add the Ribbon

Add the Panels

Time to Decorate!

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Material and Supplies

Prepare and Paint the Wood

Create the Stencil

Apply the Stencil for the “Create” Sign

Stenciling the Create Sign

Complete!

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Materials and Supplies for Stenciled Graduation Cards

About the Stencil

Cut the Stencil

Prepare to Stencil the Graduation Card

Time to Start Stenciling!

Stenciled Graduation Cards are Complete!

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Materials and Supplies for the Stenciled Tudor Rose Box

About the Multi-Layer Stencil

Color Separation

Bridgeless Design

Preparing the Wood Box

Stenciling the Tudor Rose Box

Layer 1 – The Fleur de Lis Border

Layer 2 – The Leaves

Layer 3 – The Red Petals

Layer 4 – The White Petals

layer 5 – The Yellow Center

Repairs to the Project

Fixing Shifts in the Stenciling

Fixing Damaged Paint

Embellishing the Design

What did you learn?

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Materials and Supplies

About Some of the Supplies

About the Design

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Etching Phase

Prepare the Glass

Apply the Vinyl Stencil

Apply the Etching Compound

Reveal the Etching

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Painting Phase

Accenting the Etched and Painted Crown Royal Bottle

Setting the Paint

Enjoy Your New Crafting Skills!

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Step 1 – Don’t Panic!

Step 2 – Assess the Damage

Step 3 – Start with a Clean and Dry Stencil

Step 4 – Repair Your Stencil

Step 5 – Finishing

P.S.

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Materials and Supplies to Make the Stenciled HOME Panels

About the Stretched Canvas Panels

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About the Paints

About the Stencil Brush

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Step 2 – Applying the Stencils

Vinyl Stencils

Alignment Technique 1

Alignment Technique 2

Mylar Stencils