Two for one...or...are you getting the most out of your stencils?

I want to show you something simple you can do with your stencils that you might not be doing. I love to play with stencils and can never bear to waste ink or paint so after I ink the stencil I flip it over and print the inked side too. Below shows the process with one of my stencils.

 

While I adore source like Stencil Girls for stencils, I often cut my own from my own drawings. It is super simple. I place the drawing UNDER a piece of glass; tape the stencil plastic down on TOP of the glass; then I "trace" the drawing showing through the glass with the tip of the stencil cutter. See

( http://www.pjstencils.com/index.html) for an excellent burner and inexpensive lightweight plastic).

 

 

 

In this case I had leftover red and some green acrylic paint from a project. I placed the stencil on a paper bag I had handy and inked the stencil to see what would happen...surprising colors...but I really like it. Next....

 

I often pull out papers that I have previously painted or stamped on and play with new images. I grabbed the sheet below and this time I used the red dylusions spray with the stencil to make the rose. (since the Dylusions sprays go everywhere, I did put newspaper over th part of this I wanted to mask; also I use Martha Stewert's stencil adhesive which holds the stencil fast and keeps bleeding under the stencil at a minimum).  THEN....

...I noticed when I lifted the stenecil that the top of the whole stencil had a lot of dye on it so I flipped the inked side of the stencil over and pressed it down on a new sheet of paper ( I often do this because I can't bear to waste ink or paint and I get two different images for one inking!). Below: I got this wonderful image that looks like it is a wood block or carved stamp. Very surprised and pleased. It will be the start of something neat, I'm sure!