Part 1.

Motif Stencilling Tips

Getting Ready
Test your colours and technique on scrap paper. Hold the stencil in place with a few small pieces of painters' tape, or with Stencil Adhesive on the back of the stencil.
Cover any parts of the stencil that you don't want to paint with painters tape (low tack) or Post-It notes.

Stencil With A Brush
Use a stencil brush for small projects, and fine shading or intricate detailing. Use with acrylic, latex or fabric paints.

Start with a dry brush; you need one for each colour. A wet brush will make paint run under the stencil.

Part 1.

Motif Stencilling Tips

Getting Ready
Test your colours and technique on scrap paper. Hold the stencil in place with a few small pieces of painters' tape, or with Stencil Adhesive on the back of the stencil.
Cover any parts of the stencil that you don't want to paint with painters tape (low tack) or Post-It notes.

Stencil With A Brush
Use a stencil brush for small projects, and fine shading or intricate detailing. Use with acrylic, latex or fabric paints.

Start with a dry brush; you need one for each colour. A wet brush will make paint run under the stencil.

To make paints blend and shade easily, work a tiny amount of Blending Glaze into the brush along with paint.

Put a spoonful of paint on a plate. Dab a bit on the end of your brush and work it evenly into the brush by rubbing the brush in circles on the plate. Wipe the brush vigorously on a dry rag or paper towel to get rid of the extra paint. The brush should feel like it has almost no paint on it.

Holding the brush straight up and down, rub the bristles around in circles over the cut-outs in the stencil. Another way of painting the stencil is to dab or pounce the brush straight up and down.

Stencil With A Foam Roller
This is the fastest way to stencil. You need to use a dense foam roller (not a nap roller, which holds too much paint).

Use latex house paint, or acrylic paint mixed with a little Blending Glaze or extender.

Pour a little paint onto a palette and spread into a thin layer with a spatula or putty knife.

Pull the roller through the paint, and then work it back and forth to get the paint distributed evenly on the roller. Work the roller over paper towels to remove all excess paint (important!).

Lightly roll the roller over the stencil a few times. Lift a corner to see if the print is OK. If it needs more paint, roll again, pressing a little harder.

Lift the stencil, move it and make another print. You should be able to make several prints without reloading the roller. When the roller gets too dry and sticky to make good prints, dampen it by rolling it lightly over a damp cellulose sponge. You need a dry roller for each new colour.

Two-part Stencil
Most of the stencils in this collection are painted in one step, but a few have overlaid details cut into the same stencil sheet. Paint the main part of the stencil first. Place the overlay part of the stencil on top of what you've just painted, lining it up by eye. Paint the overlay.

Cleaning Up
If you take care of this stencil, it will last for a long time. Wash it when you get too much paint build-up and immediately after using. Lay, add soap and water it on a flat surface and scrub gently with a flat brush to loosen paint. To remove really dry paint, scrub with rubbing alcohol* and a drop of dish soap, then rinse.

Part 2.

Border and Garden Stencilling Tips

MATERIALS:

The Paint
You can use any kind of paint that is not too runny, dries fast and will stick to the surface you are decorating. Hobby acrylics are the most common paint used for stencilling. Latex wall paint and artist acrylics also work well. Oil sticks and solid cream paints are good choices for beginners because they do not bleed; however they smudge easily and there fore work best with one-piece stencils (is no overlays). Fabric paints are designed to remain soft and pliable on cloth.

The Applicator
There are many ways of applying the paint, and each has a different look. You can use stencil brushes (for rubbing or pouncing the paint), foam rollers, sponges, spray diffusers or spray cans, depending on the kind of paint you are using and the type of effect you want to achieve.

METHOD:

Printing a Stencil
The key to successful stencilling is to use an absolute minimum of paint, whether you are using brushes, sprays, sponges, rollers or whatever. It is also essential to have this minimum of paint evenly distributed on the applicator. You need to work the brush or roller around vigorously to get this even distribution. Then work it on a rag or paper towel to remove any excess.

Hold the stencil in place with masking tape. Some stencils have very wiggly parts that make them difficult to print unless they are held in place with stencil glue or repositioning adhesive (lightly sprayed once on the underside). However, do not rely on this glue to keep the stencil up on the wall - its main purpose (and it works even when you can feel almost no tack) is to keep wandering parts of the stencil still. Use masking tape to support the weight of the stencil.

To apply paint with a brush, use either a circular or stippling motion. Pay particular attention to the edges of each cutout make them neat and crisp by building up the colour gradually. Foam rollers are great for filling in large cutouts evenly, but it is essential that they be almost dry.

For darker colours, make repeated applications of paint rather than trying to apply a lot of paint all at once.

You need a separate brush or roller for each colour.

When the paint starts to dry out on your applicator, dampen it by lightly tapping or rolling it on a damp sponge. Never immerse it in water until you are ready to clean it.

Prints always look lighter with the stencil still in place, so before you pile on the colour, lift up a corner of the stencil to see if the print is dark enough already.

When you have completed one print, lift the stencil, move it over into position for the next repeat print, and repeat the whole process.

Getting Started
Always stencil the repeats onto paper (newsprint, computer paper, anything cheap or free), and then tape this print in place on the wall. Leave it there for a few hours or a few months, until you are sure that you like the design (and its size), that the colours are right, and that the position is perfect (i.e. two inches below the ceiling, or three feet up off the floor or whatever you think suits your room). At this time you should also check the flow and balance of the border. There might be a motif that will look odd if it gets stuck in a corner. Or perhaps you should make the elements symmetrical over the mantel. You may decide to adjust the spacing between repeats in order to get the look you want.

Wall surfaces do not have to be freshly painted, but they should be clean. The flatter the paint the easier it is to stencil on. For glossy walls, use a paint that will stick to shiny surfaces.

Stencilling is not a messy activity, but if you count on not spilling paint, you probably will. So before you start, move or protect any furniture or surfaces that might be vulnerable. Assemble all your equipment on something that you can easily move around the room with you, for example, a tray or a cookie sheet (with edges). If this tray can be kept at the same height as you are working, it will greatly reduce the physical stress of your job.

Now go ahead and start-but begin in the least conspicuous corner of the room, so you can get the kinks out of everything before reaching center stage.

Ceiling-height borders
This is usually a straightforward job, unless you have something like a swag design, with precise positioning requirements. You need to mark a removable guideline parallel to the ceiling for positioning the stencil. Sometimes you can use the ceiling itself as the guideline, but only if it is straight and smooth or if the design is one that will not suffer from a slight wobble.

Now all you do is stick the stencil on the wall in the corner behind the door, line it up against the guideline, and paint it. Lift the stencil, move it over, and paint. Just keep going until you reach the end of the wall, turn the corner you can turn a corner by molding the stencil into it or by truncating the design just short of the corner, and continue, until you come back to where you started. Oops- you are back to where you started and the end does not quite match up with the beginning. Do not worry, if it is behind the door, or the old floor-to-ceiling armoire, no one will notice. But if you are a perfectionist, or you think you might re-arrange the furniture one day, then measure the unpainted stretch when you start the final wall and calculate how many repeats will fit. Usually you can adjust the spacing between each repeat by a very small amount and end up with a seamless join. If not, you can take a small portion of the design and stencil it into the gap in such a way that no one will notice.

Baseboard Borders
This is no different from ceiling borders except that you are down on your hands and knees instead of up on a ladder. The job goes much faster if you have cut your stencil so that one edge of it lines up with the baseboard. It also helps to have something soft under your knees- a folded blanket or piece of foam that you can drag around the room as you work. You do not have to worry about the join between start and finish if you start next to a door.

Chair rail (or fake chair rail) borders
The only difference for a mid-wall border that cuts through windows and doors is that you have to measure up a guideline on the wall in order to keep the border straight and level. Use a yardstick and a fine chalk pencil. Make tiny marks to mark the height at intervals of less than the length of the stencil. When you start painting, simply line up the edge of the stencil with these tiny dots. Of course, if your wall has a real chair rail border you do not have to mark a line-simply trim the stencil so that one edge lines up with the rail molding.

Break off the border when it runs into a window, and start it again on the other side. Things get a little more involved if the border is supposed to snake around windows and doors when it hits them, because then it has to change direction and negotiate a ninety-degree turn. There are several ways of doing this, and most of them take a little preplanning. You can manipulate the border into a "natural" turn (easiest if you are dealing with an undulating vine), or a mitered turn (as with a picture frame), or design a special corner piece, or simply chop off the border squarely and restart it in a different direction.

Centerpiece
Stencils are normally used for printing repeated pattern, but they can also be useful for a single great print because they virtually eliminate the chance of error. Also, by making practice runs on paper, you have a chance to preview and alter the image. Examples might include a ship over the mantel, a flowing bouquet of flowers over a headboard, or a large clown next to a crib.

Copyright Buckingham Stencils
Nanoose Bay BC Canada V9P 9B1 www.buckinghamstencils.com