Cut your Own Stencils with the Silhouette Cameo

Hello, Janet here with a media I haven't tried before ... Silhouette Stencil Material (the non-adhesive variety). It comes in a pack of six letter-sized, thick, plastic-y sheets. My first thought was that it would be perfect for making stencils to use with a mix of pigment ink and glitter paste. I was impressed with the resulting stencils and mask, so have shared the process of making, and using the stencils, together with the finished card, on the Silhouette UK Blog.

These are the designs that I used:


I loved using the stencil material and have all kinds of projects in mind for this stencil and for others! They can be used with glitter paste, mousse, texture paste, or sprays and mists.  I think I'm going to be busy!

Do you make your own stencils? I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions.

Painting Uglazed Ceramics

Hello, I have a tutorial on the Silhouette UK blog today on how to decorate unglazed ceramic items (available in UK craft shops at the moment). I bought a few different blanks including the tea-light set I decorated for today's post.

In the post I show how to use your Silhouette to make a set of stencils to sponge metallic acrylic paints onto the blank tea-light holder set using two Silhouette Design Store files by Nic Squirrell.

I used a repositionable matte vinyl to make my stencil, having found that using a too sticky stencil material removed some of the painted (slip) surface.

What material do you prefer to use for your stencils?

Making Stencils with the Silhouette Cameo

With an electronic cutter, like the Silhouette Cameo, stencils are cheap and easy to make. 

I make reusable stencils and masks from translucent plastic subject dividers. 

Mine are quite old and were bought in the US, very similar to these, they are softer and less brittle than the polypropylene 'popper'-ed wallets. The slight colouration is useful as they show up on your cutting mat.

They can be used with texture paste, spays, mists or with ink blending tools and stamping ink.

If you have a Silhouette cutter and use the Silhouette Online Store you can download and cut designs very easily; just search 'background', 'overlay', 'mask', 'doilie' or 'doily'.

This one is the Wood Pattern Background by Tanya Batrak, design #49120. I think it works equally well for water as in my Origami Fish project.

This one is Flower Scolloped Circle Simplified by Samantha Walker design #4836.

Other favourites of mine are Antique Doily by Lori Whitlock design #15658 and Scattered Raindrops background by Loni Stevens, design #26878.

I designed this set myself, but it very similar to the Honeycomb Screen by Jennifer Wambach design #56061. It shows how you can easily adapt the design to mask out a portion of the stencil. Folks have been asking me for cut settings and a video - I'll have to get back to you on that!