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This article shows you a way to make your own stencils on paper. You can use the stencils you make for art drawings, stickers, temporary tattoos and other creative idea. If you were doing an art drawing you could use thin card for your stencil; or if you were doing stickers you would use sticker paper; temporary tattoos stencil paper or a plastic waterproof type of paper which peels off like a sticker and sticks to your skin. You can find the paper at most arts and crafts and stationery shops.

Find a design you want to use and trace it onto tracing paper. Now you have your basic shape. You want the basic design to be larger than your actual stencil picture as you'll be drawing extra lines onto it to make shapes for each part of the design. Then you can draw lines to define the shapes of each part of the design. A simple example would be drawing a stencil rectangle. You would have your rectangle stencil and draw a line parallel to the edges of the rectangle to make a box shape. In the same way if you're doing the petals of a simple flower and there are 4 petals then you need to make a petal shape for each petal and finish the shape off so you make it into a kind of half circle. What I mean is that you need to define each piece of your picture into shapes. So you need a shape for the stem and a shape for each petal and a shape for the bud. If you want to make your design more creative you can also draw outlines. If you were doing a flower, for example, you could outline each part of the design and color with different colors, a bit like the lead part of a stained glass window design. This is a bit more difficult but you can do it by drawing a single line around the outline of the design and then drawing a next line parallel to it to make an outline shape. You decide how thick you want to make the outline but if you have a thin outline it is more difficult to cut.

After you've done this and your stencil is how you want it, you're ready to transfer your stencil onto your chosen stencil paper. To do this you stick your tracing paper onto your stencil paper at the outside corners using some clear tape. Then you get some charcoal stick or hard pencil and rub hard over the whole design until it is covered. Take off the tracing paper slowly and you should see your outline on your stencil paper. Get a sharp pencil or thin black liner and go round the stencil outline to make the lines and patterns clear.

The trick about making your own stencils is that instead of cutting out the shape you cut out the inside of the shapes so that when you come to coloring in your design the colors make up the different parts of the picture.

You then cut the inside of the shapes using a craft knife. Be careful at this stage to follow your design exactly. Just do it slowly. Practice first using simple shapes. For example, cut around the shape of the stem and then the shape of the petals. You cut out the shapes not the outside of the picture. Make sense? If you cut the outside of the stem for example you'll just be coloring a shape of a stem but if you cut out the inside then you'll be coloring the stem shape. If you've done an outline for the petals then go round the outline shape carefully so it is even.

You now have a flower stencil. You can use it to make stickers, temporary tattoos, creative drawings and paintings. Use different colors for the stencil to show the different parts if the design. For example for a flower use some green for the stem, rose for the petals and yellow for the bud or use any colors you want. You can use this simple way to make any kind of stencil design you want. If you're just beginning try making simple stencil shapes to begin with to practice.

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