Stencil the Easy Way

Stenciling with paint is one of the easiest and fun crafts to do. Stenciling is a great craft for kids -- teach them the basics and turn them loose -- they’ll be busy for hours!

Learn the techniques I am going to share with you before you teach the kids.  Children as young as four can learn to stencil -- but you need to know what you are doing first!    Supply list follows:

• Stencils
• Stencil adhesive -- spray works best
• Styrofoam plates -- these will be your palettes
• Art sponges -- synthetic silk, silk, or sea
• Cardboard or Poster board
• Acrylic paints (I like Americana Deco Art)
• Old terry cloth towel or other absorbent cloth
• Plastic disposable gloves (optional)
• Plastic disposable table cloth, newspapers or brown (Kraft) wrapping paper
• Tape

                           I particularly like using brown paper when working with children

Cover your work area -- floor, table, wherever, with plastic table cloth or paper and tape down. Brown paper can double as your practice "project." Cut poster board into 4 sections. If you have the round art sponge (you will get 1 of these free if you buy a stencil from me), cut it into 4 pieces (like a pie). You will eventually need 1 piece of sponge for each color of paint. Spray the back of your stencil and position it on the poster board.

I wear plastic gloves because I try not to get as much paint on me as my project. Most kids, however, wouldn’t think it was a very fun craft if they didn’t get some paint on their hands.

Pour a small amount of paint on a Styrofoam plate, ½” circle or so to start -- work from the edge of the plate. Wet sponge and squeeze water out, then press the sponge in the towel to squeeze out any excess water -- you want the sponge as dry as you can get it. Working with one color at a time, pinch the sponge between your fingers and tap it in your paint, then tap sponge on a clean area of your palette to remove most of the paint -- now you’re ready to stencil.

      Small amount of paint on palette with sponge          Tap sponge lightly onto stencil

Lightly tap the sponge onto the stencil until you have the coverage you want. Experiment with a couple light taps for a mottled effect or keep tapping until you have a solid coverage. Continue with a different sponge for each color until stencil is completed. Allow paint to dry -- should only be a couple minutes, acrylic dries quickly. Starting at 1 corner, remove stencil by peeling gently away from work surface. If any paint seeped under the stencil, there was either too much paint on the sponge or too much water. Your sponge should appear "dry"  because very little paint is needed.

                                                 Gently peel stencil away from project

Clean Up:  The easiest way to keep your stencils and sponges clean, is to clean them right away!  Take your stencil and sponge to the sink and clean under warm, running water: wash your stencil with your sponge and get both cleaned up at the same time.  If you are using 1 stencil, but more than one color paint, try to clean up after each color.  May sound like a pain, but a lot easier than trying to get dried paint off of a stencil -- actually you may never get that dried paint off the stencil if you wait too long.

• Tips:  You want to master the dry painting technique before you stencil a wall.
• You can get a different effect to your stenciling by using different sponges, the sea sponge can give you a mottled or speckled look by tapping lightly a couple times.
• The stencil design does not always have to be solidly filled in, especially if you are doing flowers, leaves or other form of nature.
• You can cut your sponges to different sizes for different parts of the stencil and use a variety of sponge types for different parts of the stencil.
• Q-tips are another stenciling tool you can use for very tiny areas. Make sure you barely have any paint on it!
• If you are painting on any pourous surface such as a wood item or clay flower pot, be sure to spray or brush on a sealer first or you will use a lot more paint. A base coat of paint can then be painted on the item before stenciling or stencil directly on the natural color.

          Some completed projects

Some ideas for stenciling projects:

• Clay flower pots
• Christmas and other greeting cards
• Decorate your own wrapping paper
• Picture frames -- use ready made wooden frames or make your own from poster board
• Bird houses
• Lamps
• Lamp Shades