How to Make Multi-Color Stencils

The oldest of stencil patterns--a human hand

Stencils have been in use for thousands of years--enlivening the homes of the ancients as well as our own. In addition to wall art, they embellish fabrics, furniture and clothing. Most stencil designs incorporate a single color in a basic repetitive pattern, but it is easy to create pretty patterns using multiple paint colors, and since it takes little more effort or materials to do that, there is no need to settle for boring when you can create a stencil design with pizazz.

Things You'll Need

• Stencil pattern
• Copy paper or drawing paper
• Crayons, markers or paints
• Stencil paper
• Pencil
• Sharp craft knife
• Repositionable spray adhesive
• Paint
• Stencil brushes or sponges

Instructions

1. Find a stencil pattern you like. There are millions of designs in all styles to choose from and you can even get free stencils from places like Spray Paint Stencils or Free-Stenciling Patterns to print at home and use.

2. Position the stencil on top a blank sheet of ordinary copy or drawing paper and trace the design completely.

3. Use crayons, markers or paints to fill in the stenciled design in the colors of your choice. (It may be best to use no more than four colors until you become more experienced.) This is your color pattern for creating a multicolored stencil design.

4. Assign a color name or a number to each of the colors you used to create your color pattern. (i.e. if you used Kelly green, cerulean blue, brick red and burnt umber, you could designate those simply, green, blue, red and brown, or 1 to 4 to save time.)

5. Trace the pattern of the original stencil onto four blank sheets of stencil paper (or the same number of sheets as colors you used to create the color pattern), drawing only those portions that will be painted the same color on each--one color to a single sheet. (For example, if you are stenciling daisies, you may have one pattern section on each of three different sheets--one sheet tracing only the petals, another with flower centers and a third with leaves. Those would be marked, white, yellow and green respectively.) Write the name of each color to be used in the corner of each stencil to avoid confusion.

6. Cut out all the shapes on each stencil with a sharp craft knife. (Replace the blade whenever it becomes dull to produce crisp edges and avoid tearing the stencil.)

7. Position the original stencil on the surface to be decorated and outline the pattern lightly with a pencil over the space it will occupy. (Use the penciled lines as a guide to fill in colors.)

8. Spray adjustable adhesive on the back of one stencil, position it over the guide pattern and fill with the color for that section of stencil using paint on a stencil brush or sponge. When dry, move it along the drawn lines to the next position for that section and repeat until all parts of the stencil for that color are applied.

9. Repeat Step 8 with the next color--continuing until every part using that color is applied. Continue repeating Step 8, one color at a time, until all the colors are applied and you have completely filled in the stencil design.

References

• Spray Paint Stencils: Free Stencils to Download
• Free-Stenciling Patterns: Free Stencil Patterns

Resources

• Royal Design Studios: Free Stenciling and Decorating Tips
• Victoriana: Victorian Decorative Stencil Patterns