Hey Get Silvered fans! I’m Daniela from Put A Bird On It. Pam guest posted on my blog last week {Hello Card Tutorial}, and I’m happy to be guest posting on her blog today! Pam and I are both HUGE Silhouette fans, so I am sharing a Silhouette tutorial with you all.
I make a Maternity Countdown Shirt that I sell online. I make each shirt by hand using homemade fabric paint and a stencil I cut out of vinyl. It can be time consuming, though, because I have to make a new stencil for each shirt, since the vinyl doesn’t hold up after using it once. When I found out that Silhouette sold a new Stencil Material that you can REUSE – I immediately bought some to see if it really worked! And guess what?! It did! This stencil material is thicker than vinyl – like a thin plastic – that is 100% reusable and works SO SO AMAZINGLY WELL. It’s a total dream for projects like mine that need the same stencil used over and over again. Read on for the tutorial and see my PROS and CONS to the new Stencil Material!
The Stencil Material comes in a tube. This is great for storing, but not totally great for the stencil material itself. Mine had a few bubbles (you can see in pic below) which made the cutting part almost not cut through. But it still did – I just had to pull the stencil off the paper backing carefully to make sure it came off along the cut lines in a couple of places. All vinyl comes in a roll, usually, so this could have just been user error. 🙂
Load your stencil material into your Silhouette (no cutting mat – remember to adjust your rollers!) with the stencil material facing UP (paper backing on the bottom). Design your stencil in Silhouette Studio and click “Send to Silhouette.” In the Cut Settings, just scroll down and pick your material – which is Stencil. It will then show you what to adjust your Blade & Rollers to. Easy peasy – now CUT!
This is what my stencil looked like after I cut it and removed it from the paper backing. YOU NEED TO KEEP THE PAPER BACKING! You’ll put the stencil back on the paper backing after you use it, so you can keep it and use it again! See all of the number “inside” parts? Like the inside of the “8” and the “0” and the “9” – etc. ? I put those in a little plastic bag, to keep, so I didn’t lose them, since you need them for your stencil. You guys – I seriously can’t tell you how much I love having a reusable stencil!!!!!!! It saves me SO much time. It’s just awesome. 🙂
Another awesome part?! No transfer tape! Nope! The stencil is so sturdy that you can just place it directly onto whatever your stenciling by hand. *sigh* Total dream.
Paint your project (remember to put something UNDER your project, so the paint doesn’t seep through!), let dry (use a blow dryer to speed up drying time!), and you’re done! Remove the stencil – and SAVE IT for your next project. I just LOVE this new stuff. It’s seriously awesome, if you can’t tell. 🙂
Please visit Daniela’s blog – it’s full of great posts, projects and DIY – Here’s the latest and a couple of my favourites: (links below picture)
Thanks for the tutorial! I was wondering, did you dry the ink with the stencil on the shirt? or did you pull it off first, then drying the shirt using hair dryer?
Thanks Helen, I’ll let Daniela know your query – I’m sure she’ll drop in and let you know.
Hi Helen! I didn’t use a hair dryer to dry this project. I was just saying it’s a *tip* if you need a faster drying time, you can use a hair dryer. I usually dry my project almost all the way with the stencil still on the shirt. I always make sure whatever I put between the shirt (usually a couple pieces of card stock) doesn’t stick to the paint and dry it together. Every so often, just stick your hand inside the shirt and ‘lift’ it off the cardstock – so it doesn’t dry together. Does that make sense? Hope that helps! Thanks!
xo
Daniela
Thanks Daniela 🙂