This easy tutorial shows you how to make your own stenciled burlap art with a Silhouette machine in a few simple steps.
I had the big job of making a simple craft for 150 women at a women's conference at my church this past weekend, so I've been busy with that.
I have spent a lot of the last few months neglecting my own self-care to keep up, but it was wearing me down. I know that if I want to keep blogging, which I truly do want to do, I need to slow down sometimes and get some sleep instead of editing photos. But I'm back today to share my simple women's conference craft with you!
A few weeks ago, a group of my blogger friends hosted Pinterest Parties at Michael's Crafts Stores, and many of them used the burlap stretched canvases and panels. {Sorry I didn't snap a picture of just the canvases, but they are sold at Michael's and are awesome!
That got me thinking right away when I saw these adorable DIYs pop up! So many of them are too cute, and I plan to share a round-up later this week. This gave me the idea for a semi-inexpensive craft that anybody at any skill level could do.
Supplies for DIY Stenciled Burlap Art:
– Artist's Loft stretched burlap panels from Michael's Craft Store {they also have stretched burlap canvases... so cute!}
– blank stencil material or pre-made stencils {I bought the blank material at Michael's and Hobby Lobby.}
– Silhouette Machine {optional – you don't need one if you buy pre-made stencils}
– acrylic craft paint – foam brushes
– paper plate
– Repositionable Spray Adhesive {you can find it at Hobby Lobby, too}
How to Make DIY Stenciled Burlap Art:
1. Create your design.
First, I designed my three different stencils. I quickly realized I would need to tweak the regular fonts so that all of the pieces stayed in place. Let me show you.
2. Create a stencil from any font.
{You may only be able to do this in the designer edition, but I'm not sure?} OK, first select the knife tool. Then make sure "straight" and "solid" are selected.
Then you will "cut" through any letter that has a middle part that needs to stay in place, like an a, o, g, d, p, and so on.
Now, when you lift the stencil off the cutting mat, those little inside pieces will come up with it. If you want to watch a video on how to turn any font into a stencil, this one is great.
3. Cut your stencil.
After I designed the stencils, I fed the stencil blanks into my Silhouette Cameo and cut out the designs. {Tip: test your design on cardstock first to make sure there are enough cuts in the letters to hold them together. That way you won't waste any stencil blanks. Ask me how I know.}
I won't share my Silhouette cut settings, because I used several different brands of stencil blanks and each one needed different settings. As a general rule, the thickness was 33 and the speed was 2-3. But the blade settings varied quite a bit. You'll just need to test yours to see which blade setting cuts through it.
On the thicker blanks, I had to select "double cut." I found that the Hobby Lobby Show-Off brand stencils worked great in the larger sizes {12×18 and 9×18}. But the 8×10 Show-Off brand stencil blanks from HL were impossible to cut. They were just too thick. The 8×10 stencil blanks from Michael's were even thinner than HL's and very easy to cut. So, I ended up using a mix of 8×10 blanks from Michael's and the larger sizes from Hobby Lobby.
4. Weed your stencil.
Because I was making these for almost 150 women to stencil at a conference, I made a lot of stencils. I was pretty sick of weeding and listening to the Silhouette "sing" by the time I finished.
5. Spray the back of the stencil with repositionable adhesive.
This stuff worked great and kept the stencils in place. Loved it! I found it at Hobby Lobby.
6. Place stencil on burlap and paint!
Finally, the fun begins! Choose your colors and paint over the stencils.
IMPORTANT! The two biggest tips for crisp lines when stenciling are to use very little paint. {Dab off any excess paint on the paper plate before you paint the stencil.} And dab the paint in an up-and-down motion. Don't brush side to side or top to bottom, because the paint will seep under the stencil and the letters will look like blobs instead of nice, crisp letters.
7. Pull off the stencil and let the paint dry.
And you're done! I wish I could have gotten a picture of all the creative ways the women did their stencils this weekend. They were gorgeous, and I think they enjoyed the craft.
And just for fun, I thought I'd share my stencil files with you in case you want to make one of your own!
I am a Daughter of the King stencil file
Grace Not Perfection stencil file
He will Take Great Delight in You stencil file
Have you ever stenciled on burlap before?
Have you made a stencil before? Any tips or tricks?
Feel free to pin this for later or pin it to share with your friends!
