How to Make Free Printable Stencils

Stencils can be bought on the craft aisle of most shopping stores, but the ones that are thick enough to last multiple uses usually come with a pretty hefty price tag. And with that price you’re not always guaranteed that the stencils will last. Why not get some great stencils, in the exact font you want and printed on some heavy card stock? You can! Make your own free printable stencils with these steps.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Word or Notepad type program
• printer
• heavy card stock

1. Open Word, Notepad or a similar program to begin designing your own free, printable stencils.

2. Determine what font style you want for your letters. Times New Roman or Arial would be the most typical, but pick a font that fits what you need. You can use Wingdings, Webdings or a similar image font for designs.

3. Find the correct font size. Experiment with various sizes for your free, printable stencils.

4. Use the “Print Preview” button located under Files to see how it looks on paper. With Times New Roman font size 400 is 1/3 of a Landscaped page.

5. Change the font color to a light gray or another very pale color. This will save ink and still make the letter dark enough to be seen to cut out.

6. Make all the letters in capital and lowercase. Using Times New Roman and size 400 font you can fit three letters per page.

7. Print the letters on heavy-weight paper or card stock.

8. Cut the free printable stencils out. Don’t forget to cut the centers out of letters like ‘a’ and ‘p’.

Tips & Warnings

• Cutting out the stencils can be fun for kids but if you want to straightest edges only let adults do it.
• Supervise children using scissors.

[turtledove]

on 9/8/2009 I like to make my own, so this is perfect. 5*