Saturday, January 11, 2014

Stenciling Tips and Tricks

I received a Hero Arts stencil from a prize on their flickr group (from Cindy, hi, Cindy!) and tried it out today. Here's what I learned just in case you're thinking of trying a stencil in your crafting.

The stencil I used is a number stencil and is plastic. I tried using Distress Stains at first, because I thought the application would be easy. It was...too easy. It leaked and smeared and looked like this.



I tried Distress Inks and pounced. This is my work in progress--remember to tape down your stencil to keep it from moving. I used washi.



This shows the pounced ink on the left and pounced acrylic paint on the right. Not bad, but still a bit smeary where I didn't pounce up and down and swiped instead with the finger dauber.



I had to try Stickles, as they are my favorite thing in the world...y'know besides the kids and husband. I used a lot of Stickles and just smeared it in with a finger. It's spotty coverage and you use a lot, but it's a cool effect.



The best effect was using the gel medium with acrylic paint imo. I used an old gift card to spread the gel medium first and then spread some paint on top. It's thick but not gloppy and came out a crisp image.



I tried just gel medium on the left, spray ink at the top and glitter paint on the right. You can see that my stencil was still a bit blue because the gold paint has some blue tinge to it.


I liked using the gel medium with paint and then stain too. The stain colored the paint a different blue but was thick enough with the gel and acrylic paint not to seep through the edges.


Last caveat: Don't touch the gel to see if it's dry yet. It's thick and takes awhile to set. Mine took a half-hour or more. See the dent in the 9 where I checked too early? :)



So try fooling around with the stencil and different media. If you want crisp and lovely, try the gel medium with acrylic paint as a second layer (while the gel is wet and the stencil is still taped down.) But, be prepared to spend a bit of time while you play around. I thought it'd go fast, but I kept wanting to try different things with it while it was still out. I tried some different papers too. I didn't see much difference, except that the thin paper buckles with too much media.

Oh, and clean the stencil periodically through the process. If you use Stickles, remember that's a glue. You can wash it in a regular sink and dry with a paper towel. Pat and don't rub the stencil, so you don't bend the pieces. 

Have fun! Hope this helps!
Chark


5 comments:

  1. Fabulous results Chark! You put that stencil in good use, thanks for the tutorial, I've learnt quite a few things! So glad you enjoy the stencil!

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  2. Great ideas -- thanks for sharing!!

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  3. Thanks for a very informative post! I'm on the Memory Box DT and they just sent us 10 stencils, and my knowledge is limited is this area, so I am VERY grateful for the education!!!

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  4. wonderful post, thanks for all the tips.

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  5. Charlene, thanks so much for all the information, tips and photos! It's great to now know what does and doesn't work with stencils. I had a good giggle at your comment on stickles being nearly your favourite thing in the world:)

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