Stencil Stories

I Love stencils, always have. When I was small we used to cut shapes from paper and card. I would colour and scribble and draw through the shapes onto other paper and card. My dad used to make us toys. Jigsaws were a firm favourite. I remember using the odd off cut shapes which were left. These I used as stamps, stencils, or anything I could think of to do with them.


I have a big collection of stencils, quite a few are kept in this box....


.... it's packed to the brim. I'll show you some of them.....


.....some of them have been used many times, some just once, some are waiting for that " certain" project....


.... some of them I was given, a huge pile of unwanted stencils...

....this is just a small selection of them.....


.....i have tiny ones for minute projects and huge ones for wall projects....

.....I have some that accompany books......


.... and I have some from my school days....

...and I love each and every one of them and wouldn't part with a single one.

Sometimes I use just part of a stencil, sometimes I use the whole thing. It just depends on what I'm doing.
I also make my own too, from card, paper, plastic or whatever is to hand or will be suitable.

I use this....
.


....clean plastic packaging. some of these packets were from dies. I cut out the best bits and the rest goes into the recycling ( if it can be recycled) .

I use card......

...any card, or paper.
But I also use these.....

...wash and dry them and then get to work. Cut out all the best bits. I know that sometimes these cartons vary from shop to shop, and some have a textured part. Fear not because that too can be used. ( I'll leave that for another post) It can be cut with scissors to any shape you want. Just draw around, or make the shape you want.. But the best bit is this.....



...if you've got a Sizzix machine,or other die cutting machine, then the possibilities are endless.
There seems to be a growing trend to use stencils once more, ( I hate that word, trend and the phrase "on trend") I don't follow whatever anyone else is doing and do my own thing, and always will. People even call them masks now, but they're all stencils to me. All my life I've been stencilling  on paper, card, walls, fabric, garden pots, sheds, glass, clothes, mirrors, curtains. it's endless what I've done, and I will carry on doing do, whether its "on trend" or not!
But back to the milk cartons, it doesn't stop these because there are other things which you can do with them too.
But that will be on my next post when I've played experimented some more.