Lesson 8: Using Stencils with Paper
Dry Embossing with Stencils - Equipment
Another way to use stencils with paper is for embossing - creating a raised effect on paper by rubbing a stylus into the negative areas of a stencil. You may have seen some of these in gift stores, softly colored and framed with a relatively high price tag. Once you discover how simple they are to make you'll be outraged at the price tag. You can easily do it yourself, frame it simply and have some lovely home décor - or gifts for special friends.
You can also use embossing to enhance your scrapbook or journal pages, to create elegant lines and borders on plain cards and stationery, or to create a tile effect. Imagine creating enough little tiles with embossed letters on them to create a really individualistic cover for your journal or for a card.
Basic Equipment
Traditional embossing uses a stylus (something like an inkless ballpoint pen). There are different sizes if embossing styluses, from very fine ones good for detail to larger tips good for quickly covering large surfaces. Often you can find double-ended styluses with a fine and medium end. This is a bargain as you can use the very fine end to trace your outlines and work in very small areas of your stencil, then reverse it to finish the larger areas.
In a pinch, a knitting needle makes a good substitute.
Your other major piece of equipment is a heavy stencil. Crafts stores sell small brass stencils that are ideal for this, since they are thick enough to give your embossing some real relief. However, why limit yourself to tiny designs? The heavy mylar stencils used for plaster stenciling make great embossing stencils. You could create a dramatic design and frame it instead of merely embossing tint gift tags and greeting cards. I embossed plain brown wrapping paper in a gigantic leaf design and tinted the leaves with pastels to wrap my husband's birthday gifts this year. I kind of which I hadn't, as now he refuses to throw it away and so it still sits on the dining room table looking for a home.
Another alternative is to cut your own stencil using heavy mat board.
You will also need low tack masking tape to hold your stencil in place when working, and - of course - paper. Heavy paper tends to work better than thin, but vellum or parchment gives you some beautiful effects. And embossing on hand made mulberry paper can be absolutely beautiful.
You may like working on a flat surface, in which case a light table is useful. There are small ones, suitable for stationery, note cards and small pictures available fairly inexpensively at crafts stores. It is a simply translucent plastic work surface with a small light bulb beneath it. Since you place your stencil under the design to create the embossed effect, you need a light source to show you where the stencil openings are.
But if it's daylight, a well lit window can work equally well and costs nothing.
Colored pastel chalks and the small cosmetic brushes used for applying eye shadow are nice if you want to add color to your finished design. Oil pastels seem to be the best and least likely to scatter fine grains of color where you don't want them.
Waxed paper will help your stylus to glide smoothly over the paper you are embossing.
You also need low-tack masking tape to hold your stencil and paper in place without harming the paper when it's time to remove the tape. Don't be tempted to substitute regular masking tape of cellophane tape. You may be sorry.
