Cardboard Stencil Tutorial and Free Template

I've been playing around with stencils since posting my Stenciled Watercolors Tutorial.  In fact,  I ventured to make my own stencil out of cardboard.

 Here's what I ended up with... I love this one!  It's so happy and flowery :)

Want to make one of your own?  Just keep reading, follow my little tutorial and take advantage of a little freebie too!

Cardboard Stencil Tutorial 

Materials:

• cereal box
• exacto knife
• cutting matt
• scissors
• scotch tape
• paper cutting template of your choosing, or you can use mine- just click on the link below!

Free Flower Template

Step 1:  Print out the template and tape it to the back side of an opened-up, flattened cereal box.  I trimmed around my template a bit to make it fit better.  Lay it on top of the cutting matt.

Step 2:  Using the exacto knife,  cut around the edges of the template.  You have to press pretty hard with the knife to get through the cardboard, so you may have sore fingers afterwards, like me.

Step 3:  Punch out the cut-out sections.  Your stencil should look like this....

All done.... now go and use your stencil for whatever crafty projects you have planned :)

tip:  You can try laminating your stencil if you want to use it with watercolors like I did.  I couldn't fit it in my laminator, so I covered it in packing tape.  Not that professional-looking, but hey, it works!