Stenciling 101

Lesson 2: Practice Run - Getting the Basics Down

Preparing to Stencil

A single overlay one-color stencil is the easiest and least expensive. It can be mastered quickly and easily as one single stencil contains the entire design, which can be executed quite nicely using only one color. However, once you have mastered the art of applying paint and masking things, you can use this same stencil to create multi-colored designs. So while they may be cheap and appear at first glance to be somewhat boring compared to stencils that requite many overlays and use dozens of colors, they are not to be sneered at.

Preparation
It's a good idea to practice any stencil you have on blank paper ? or even on newspaper ? first, until you get a good idea of how it works, what colors look best where and where you may want to do some shading.

Take the stencil and tape it into position with the masking tape. Start at the extreme left edge of an open sheet of newspaper, as we are going to create a pretend border.

You will notice with most stencils that there are small holes ? usually circular, square. or a tiny diamond shape at the top edges (and sometimes the bottom) that are not part of the design. You can see three of the four holes that were deliberately cut into this garden stencil. These are called registration holes. You use them to line up the stencil so that if you are going to repeat it in a border you can make sure the end of the stenciled area will align itself perfectly with the new area you are about to stencil. Make a light pencil mark in the registration holes at the right end of the stencil. Or, to save marking the wall if you haven't got a disappearing fabric marking pencil, stick a tiny bit of masking tape under each and make your marks on that. Be sure to use low tack painters tape, or you risk lifting some of your paint when you remove it.

Now, take your stencil paint and squeeze a very small amount onto the paper plate if you are using liquid acrylic stencil paint. If you are using crèmes, you may find a skin has formed over the paint in the jar. This is normal. Peel it away with a knife-edge or even your fingernail. The paint underneath should be lipstick consistency.

When you have all your supplies in one place and have decided on your design you're ready to start.

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