I guess I’m telling my age when I say that I can remember when a stencil cost about a dime. You won’t find many dime stencils nowadays so you likely pay whatever price is being asked. Sure, stenciling is a lot of fun, and isn’t one of the most expensive crafts you can do, but who wants to pay so much money for a single stencil image? By the time you purchase many stencils you’ve got quite an investment. Stencils don’t necessarily have to be made from thick, hard plastic, like those found at a craft store. You can make simplistic stencils – ones that work just as well as the costly types – just by using freezer paper. Just like any other stencils, the ones you make can be used to put images on t-shirts, purses, lamps, cabinet doors, and many other surfaces.
Freezer paper stencils are very easy to create. Simply find something you can use as a pattern and your stencil will be done in a few minutes. The pattern can be a picture from a magazine, from a coloring book, or from another source. Lay the freezer paper over the image and trace around it. Another option is to choose something, like a cardboard box, set it on the freezer paper, and draw around it. Don’t draw on the shiny side; draw on the opposite side of the paper.
After your design looks like you want it to, cut around it, and remove a section of the paper. You can cut around the image with a sharp craft knife for the ideal stencil. You can also use scissors but you’ll have to be careful not to bend the paper surrounding the image, as you cut it.
For some people, it’s easiest to cut from the edge of the freezer paper, over to the image, and then cut it out. It’s okay to do this but you’ll need some tape to tape the cut from the side of the paper to the image itself. Otherwise, some paint could leak through this cut as you use the stencil.
To apply the stencil, position it on fabric, then iron it for a few seconds so that it clings to the fabric. Paint inside the image design to create it. If you’re putting the stencil design on something other than cloth, just tape it in place before painting.