How to Design a Stencil to Cut

With some creativity and some thought it is easy to design and cut a stencil. The beauty of designing your own stencils that you can create and recreate your own designs that express your interests and tastes. If you love tea cups, but tea cups are not popular at the moment then trying to find a teacup stencil is impossible. However if you can draw or find clip art with a tea cup motif than you can create your own design.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Mylar stencil sheet or card stock
• Printed simple line design
• Tracing paper
• Pencil
• Thin markers
• Exacto knife
• Embroidery scissors
• Fine sand paper
• Masking tape

1. 
    
   Decide a design

   Decide on motif you want to stencil. Clean line drawings work best.

2. Eliminate details that are fine and will be difficult to cut. To simplify the design, tape it to a flat surface with masking tape and lay a piece of tracing paper over it. Trace only a simplified shape.

3. 
    
   Simplify the design

   Remove the tracing paper from the top on the design and lay it on a flat surface. Place a new piece of tracing paper on the old. The design will have to be redrawn thinking about how bridges or section of the design will need to connect. A stem of a piece of wheat cannot run into the wheat bud, it will need to stop short of the bud. These bridges are necessary otherwise when you cut the design loses it shape as shapes run together. Each shape needs to separate and not touch.

4. 
    
   Trace on the mylar

   When you have the final design, remove it from top of the art you have been tracing and place in on a flat surface. Tape the Mylar stencil sheet down. Then trace design with permanent felt tip pen.

5. 
    
   Cut with an Exacto blade

   Remove the mylar sheet from the design and place it on a flat surface like a scrap piece of mat board and tape down. Carefully cut the design with a new Exacto knife blade. Take care in not overcutting the edge or through the bridges. When finished, fine sand paper will remove any nips in the edges.

Tips & Warnings

• Card stock can be substitute by placing tracing paper design on top and cutting through both the card stock and paper. These stencils are good from spray painting the design and one time use.
• You may prefer to use small embroider scissors to cut the designs. It takes some practice and very fine scissors.