Make your own stencil in 3 easy steps

You know I like to research things and I came across the stencilling.  I then decided to take a chance and see if I could do it. I honestly have been thinking about doing it for some time because it looked a bit hard, but it’s really not.  Well maybe depending on the pattern you want it could be.  The entire project cost me R60, because I already have my cutting board from my studies as well as paint. 

What you’d need is reasonably thick plastic (this you can get at any place that sells plastic covers for notes), enough to cut with an nt cutter; a thin tip permanent marker; an nt cutter (of course); a cutting board (if you don’t want to spend money on this, find a flat clean surface. And it has to be one that you can cut on because the knife is quite sharp it will definitely leave cuts on the surface). In my photo you’ll see I used a piece of cardboard to cut on. It was harder to cut on because the knife kept going right into the board.  And the last two things you’d need is the pattern you would like to turn into a stencil and paint to paint onto a surface (your colour of choice).

Step 1

            Take your pattern and place the plastic over it, like you are going to trace it. 

Using the permanent marker draw the pattern, slowly, you do not want to rush through this.  Remember the stencil can be used for a while so taking your time will pay off.

Once the tracing is done onto the plastic, move onto step 2.

Step 2

Place the cutting board on a clean hard surface and place the plastic on it.  Using the nt cutter, start cutting out the pattern (I think I found this pattern on the home-dzine site).

 As you can see I only cut out a small portion of the pattern just to show you how it works.

You have to take your time cutting because making a mistake could cost you the plastic as well as time.

Step 3

            You have made your stencilJ

Now to test it out.  If you have cellotape or masking tape, stick the stencil onto paper or board and paint over it, make sure not to use too much paint on the brush it might just seep under the stencil.

And there we are our first stencilJ