How To: Custom Stencils for Painting

Here is how you create some custom stencils to mask off areas and make great logos and lettering.

First lets get a list of things you need. And this is by no means a final list. If you can find something else that ill do the job (and im sure there are), go ahead and use them.

- Some kind of label paper, that you can print on and then stick to a surface
- A computer and printer (or draw your own designs)
- Exacto knife or a pair of scissors
- Newspaper
- A paint of your choice
- A thing to paint on (i used plain cardboard

Now there are two kinds of stencils, a positive and a negative. Ones the exact opposite of the other. The first part of both are the same.

1) First you need to get yourself a design. Finding a design on the computer and printing it out was the way i went. Its much quicker then drawing it and much more precise. A quick google images search of "mitsubishi" gave me this.


2) Now just use paint or any other picture editing software to edit the image to your liking, keeping in mind the dimensions that you would like to have. Then just print it out on the label paper.

Here is the kind of paper that i used.


And after editing my image and printing it out, this is what i got. I printed two; one for a positive and one for a negative.


Let do a positive image first.

3) Now that you have your printed design, cut out the design.


4) Now you can either stick the sheet directly to the object, or stick it to a sturdy material to give it some backing, cut out the design again, and you can create a reusable stencil this way.


5) Now if you decided to do a reusable stencil, you need to secure the stencil to the object your painting.

6) Now your ready for paint. Get that paint of your choice and paint that sucker. And WALA! a nice positive image of your design.


Now let do a negative image.

3) Now if the image is one solid piece, you can just stick the piece you cut out onto the object or again, create a reusable stencil. But for the Mitsubishi symbol, its a big harder because the pieces cut out is not one solid piece. Its just 3 unconnected diamonds, and getting it set up again is next to impossible. So start with another sheet, and stick the entire thing to the object.


4) Now cut out the design and then peel away the outside sticker.


5) Now you have a piece is a pretty ready for paint.


6) Get your paint and get to work.


7) Now peel away the remaining sticker and youll have a great negative image.


All in all. This is about creativity and ingenuity. The more you have the easier it will get. Think of materials that you could use (for example i used 3x5 cards for a sturdy backing). And using your creativity, you can apply this to anywhere you can think of.