You Are My Sunshine (How to Stencil)

I’m going to show you how to use your Silhouette SD to cut a stencil. 


I designed my layout in the Silhouette program. You can see I used Arial (font).  I cut the stencil out of contact paper. I use a speed of  3 and a thickness of 3.



Here is my stencil after I have peeled away the negative parts.


I placed some clear contact paper (using it as transfer paper) over the contact paper stencil. (I have it peeled away so that you can see how it looks.


I started lining up my stencil. I use a seamstress’ hem gauge to get equal sides all around the stencil. I use this on EVERY sign I make.



I peeled back the stencil. Generally I use the “hinge” method, using painter’s tape to hinge the vinyl. However this time, I had a small edge of the clear contact paper all the way to the left that “clung” to the board.  (can you see that the paper backing ends short of the edge?) 





I removed the paper backing and the very right edge had been stuck to the board.  (by the way I had previously painted the board with Martha’s Sample pot of Heavy Cream.)


I continue to lay don the stencil.


After the stencil is in place, I peel away the clear contact paper, leaving the letters stuck to the board.


Here is a very special tip. Pay close attention to this part, if you don’t know this secret, you can thank me next time you use it.  After the stencil is stuck to the board-paint the board again, right over the stencil with your base color. (Heavy Cream)


This step will decrease your bleed by 99.9%. 


After that coat of Heavy Cream dried, I painted over the entire board with black.





I painted two coats, but didn’t take a picture, I got too impatient and started peeling off the letters.  You will notice a few of the letters are askew. Contact paper does NOT work as well, nor is it as easy to work with as Silhouette Premium vinyl is. However, I choose NOT to waste good vinyl for a stencil.  You can see that I have peeled most of the letters off by the time I remember to take a picture.  I like to pick my stencil off while the paint is still somewhat damp. (I use tweezers to pick the letters)


Here is my pile of letters.


Because this sign was “stenciled”, it looks more like it was hand painted. Therefore I distressed the edges a little.  I made this sign for Jan. She asked me if I would make a couple of signs for her, I will show you the other one next week.



Since I had the layout already designed, I also cut out letters in white vinyl.  In person, it’s easy to tell the difference in the two signs. I like them both, however, the stenciled sign (lightly distressed) is my favorite look.  The sign with the white vinyl letters was a birthday present for a friend.


Which do you think you prefer? Stenciled or Vinyl?


gail
ps you can see the Dremel 4000 winner announcement here.