Stencilling Art

This article shows you a way to make your own stencils on paper. You can use the stencils you make for art drawings, stickers, temporary tattoos and other creative idea. If you were doing an art drawing you could use thin card for your stencil; or if you were doing stickers you would use sticker paper; temporary tattoos stencil paper or a plastic waterproof type of paper which peels off like a sticker and sticks to your skin. You can find the paper at most arts and crafts and stationery shops.

Find a design you want to use and trace it onto tracing paper. Now you have your basic shape. You want the basic design to be larger than your actual stencil picture as you’ll be drawing extra lines onto it to make shapes for each part of the design. Then you can draw lines to define the shapes of each part of the design. A simple example would be drawing a stencil rectangle. You would have your rectangle stencil and draw a line parallel to the edges of the rectangle to make a box shape. In the same way if you’re doing the petals of a simple flower and there are 4 petals then you need to make a petal shape for each petal and finish the shape off so you make it into a kind of half circle. What I mean is that you need to define each piece of your picture into shapes. So you need a shape for the stem and a shape for each petal and a shape for the bud. If you want to make your design more creative you can also draw outlines. If you were doing a flower, for example, you could outline each part of the design and color with different colors, a bit like the lead part of a stained glass window design. This is a bit more difficult but you can do it by drawing a single line around the outline of the design and then drawing a next line parallel to it to make an outline shape. You decide how thick you want to make the outline but if you have a thin outline it is more difficult to cut.

After you’ve done this and your stencil is how you want it, you’re ready to transfer your stencil onto your chosen stencil paper. To do this you stick your tracing paper onto your stencil paper at the outside corners using some clear tape. Then you get some charcoal stick or hard pencil and rub hard over the whole design until it is covered. Take off the tracing paper slowly and you should see your outline on your stencil paper. Get a sharp pencil or thin black liner and go round the stencil outline to make the lines and patterns clear.

The trick about making your own stencils