One of my first-ever blog posts on Scissors & Sage was a stencil pillow I made.  It was my first time using a stencil for a crafting project, and I couldn’t believe what a fun and relatively simple process it was!  Months later, I made another stencil project, Mirror, Mirror, as an apartment-warming gift for my friend, Caroline.  I’ve started using stencils to craft homemade cards, too, and it works quite well!  Today, I present a project I recently finished for my uncle’s birthday.  I knew it was a quotation that he really liked, so I thought I’d give him something that he could put up in his home.  Making this stencil art is not difficult; it only requires some layout planning and a good eye!

Materials:

• Stencil pack
• Black marker, thin enough to fit in the stencils
• Colored paper
• Computer paper
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Eraser

The first step is to choose a quotation.  Then, use computer paper to sketch out the individual words and design you want.  This took some trial and error, as I wasn’t sure how I wanted the words to fit together.  I decided to cut up the computer paper so I could move the words around individually.  Once you have the layout you want, get the colored paper ready and place the rough draft above it, like this:

That way, there will be a guide to show you where to place each letter.  (I really don’t like it when things aren’t centered, so this helps to avoid that!)  Continue stenciling each word.  When you finish, fill in the stencil gaps in letters like “B” and “U” by hand.

The project is complete!  Finish it off with a frame or tack it to a cork board.  My project is happily framed at my uncle’s house.  What are some other ways to use stenciling?  Happy crafting!