homemade stencil

i am going to share how i made my woman stencil. to demonstrate the process i made a bird (which turned out cute!).....i first simply grabbed some scrapbook paper and cut out my shape. if you are not comfortable drawing and cutting your shape- journal girl had a great idea of how to get that shape you want- check this out!

 and if you look close on my stencil- you will notice some tape on his back....i did not like my first shape. he was too skinny- i like a little plumper bird- so i added a little fatness and taped that into place. and his one leg was a bit skinny; so i added just a bit to the leg to reenforce just a bit, i added some tape there too.

 you may ask why i used it before i was completely done with the process?....i wanted to verify that the shape i had cut, looked good on paper. so i did  paint around him just to verify that i did like his shape. once i knew the shape was good- i added playing cards to him to provide strength and durability.

 to add my playing cards, i used a gloss gel, but, you could use a heavier matte medium to do this step as well. it just needs to bind the cards to your paper shape. this is what i had on hand.

 once i have applied the gel, i put the cards onto the shape completely covering the shape and placing the cards as closely together as possible. i did brayer my cards once on to verify good contact and if you are worried about a sensitive area- use a clip to hold while drying.

 once dried, cut around the shape with your scissors....

some areas may be a little tight to use your scissors so i did use an exacto knife to cut out the area between his legs and to clean up the space by his beak.

 once he was completely cut out- i flipped him over and did use that same gloss gel on the back to provide a barrier on that side as well. i did not cover both sides in cards because i felt like otherwise, the stencil gets too thick- but, if you like that, feel free.....

 this was the bird painting i made then using my new stencil. he is looking very dapper!

 the background is from my gelli plate and a few layers then in between. if you give this a try- let me know! what can you make?