Stencils: Coloring

There are lots of different types of stencils, from brass and other metals, plastic, down to ones you make yourself out of paper.  The fun thing about stencils is that you can use them in different ways.

The one on the bottom is a metal stencil called Bare Trees (Dreamweaver), the one on the right is a thin plastic (Plaid), and the one at the top is one I cut out of lightweight card stock on my Silhouette.  You can use punches, or even rips to make your own.

There are different ways to color using stencils.  For this one, I taped my card stock to the stencil and I am choosing to use sponge daubers with distress ink.  You can also use stencil brushes for dabbing in the ink, then pouncing all over the stencil and paper.

For this, I swirled my sponge dauber on the green ink pad to ink it up, then started swirling it on my craft mat, then up onto the card stock/paper.  I continue inking up the dauber as needed, but always starting off the paper and moving my way up onto it.  If you start swirling on your paper/card, it can be way too dark in one spot, where this way you can add a little color at a time to get it just the right shade.

I do hold the stencil down while adding the color to make certain it doesn’t move and that the color is not getting under the stencil.

This is done being colored.  You notice I have some areas darker than others, which seems more realistic to me.

Here I have just removed the stencil, so you can see the finished product.

For my next way of coloring, I taped my card stock onto my stencil, then flipped it over so the card is on top and put it on a light box.  If you don’t have a lightbox, you can tape it (or hold it up) to a window or glass door with light outside (this works on a glass top table with light under it, too).  Then I rub all over the card/paper with wax paper to transfer a tiny bit of the wax and make it more slippery.  Then I used a ball end tool to go around the stencil to push the paper up around the stencil.

Leave your paper/card attached to the stencil and flip it over to color in the same way as before.

The finished product.

Other ways to color using stencil would be spraying or misting ink across with the stencil attached.  You could also pat ink on with the ink pad itself, though that would make it quite dark with less opportunity to blend.

When you use a metal stencil, make sure you rinse it with warm water right away to remove the ink.  If you use embossing paste or gesso, you may need to use dish detergent to clean it, as well.

This is a card I made with the first background.

For this one, I used a card stock stencil I cut with my Silhouette and laid it across the card base, then smoothed embossing paste across.  After the embossing paste was in the areas I wanted it, I pulled the “stencil” straight up and off, then let the embossing paste dry completely before making the card.

There are lots of ways to use stencils, but these are a few ways to use them with coloring.

Thanks for spending some time with me today!

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