Free Printable Stencil

A stencil is picture, letter, or shape cut out of a template which is used for making the same identical image every time. Most people are familiar with letter stencils used to make posters or letter mailboxes or shape stencils used to teach children to draw basic geometric shapes, but stencils can be infinitely complex and can be used to create entire murals. Basic stencils are available to print from a variety of online sources for free. Free printable stencils can be used for a variety of stenciling projects and can be more practical than investing in precut stencils for one time or children's projects.

Stencils can be cut out of a variety of materials. Cardstock or transparency sheets would work well for most small projects, wax paper works well for stenciling fabric as it can be ironed on and removed without damage to the fabric. Press and Seal style plastic wrap is also a good "clingy" material for stencil making, but it is not very durable.

Buckingham stencils offers a new free printable stencil every month. The selection is not large, but the printable stencils are detailed and included excellent instructions on how to use multiple layered printable stencils. Their tutorial is great for helping visualize what a finished stenciling project would look like.

About.com has a section devoted to free printable stencils. The stencils themselves aren't what I would call spectacular and the format About.com uses doesn't lend itself well to organizing and distributing free printables, BUT there is a lot of variety and variety is the spice of life. These printable stencils are in image formats and can be easily resized. Most of them are one layer printable stencils.

MFGraffix has great instructions for cutting and using printable stencils. There are a lot of aspects to stenciling that the newbie may not have considered so this is an excellent read. Simple tips like "cut the smallest portions of the stencil out first" makes using printable stencils a more stress free experience.