DIY Craft Hack Make a Stencil Using a Glue Gun

I'm always amazed by how freaking expensive stencils are so in this week's blog post I'm going to show you an easy, quick DIY to create unique stencils all by yourself using your glue gun.

These type of stencils work great for creating backgrounds for journaling pages, scrapbook pages, wall art, greeting cards, fabric and lots of other stuff I can't imagine right now.

All you need is

Glue Gun
Extra Glue Sticks
Silicone Mat or Wax Paper (Non-Stick)

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First Step- Thinking of Your Design

What do you want your glue gun stencil to look like? It's time to let your creativity shine, you can create geometric designs, write out words, draw a simple silhouette picture.. almost anything, so take your pick.

Second Step- Getting Ready

Plug in your glue gun and lay down your silicone mat or wax paper. Once your glue gun has started leaking some hot glue out of its tip you are good to go.

Third Step- Glue Gun Drawing

Time to create, pick a spot and let it flow.

Here's some tips

Go slow, you want your glue gun lines to be thick so it wont break and creates a more defined stencil
Don't worry about the glue stringers you can remove those afterwards
If you want your stencil to be one piece then you need to make sure it's all connected by the glue
Using wax paper? You can place a picture underneath and copy it onto the wax paper
Smaller stencils are easier to work with but you can create large stencils as well
You know your stencil is done when the glue turns from a clear color to a milky white color

Fourth Step- Let it Cool, then Peel it off the Mat

Once your stencil has cooled it will come off your silicone mat very easily but lift it off the mat slowly and carefully. If you used wax paper there may be some waxy residue stuck to the back of your stencil. In that case just clean it off with some water first before you use your stencil for the first time.

Fifth Step- Get Crafty

Put that stencil to work! It's going to be easiest to use if you have a spray of sorts to create the stencil effect. You could use alcohol ink spray, spray paint, fabric spray, any kind of spray.

These stencils are resuable, you can wash them with water, wipe them off or just let it dry between sprayings. It wont last forever but it was pretty much free, so who cares.

Here's a few different "paint jobs" I did on some photo paper using my stencil. I made them outside on a beautiful fall day! I'm going to draw on them and do some mix media magic then throw them up in my Etsy store

Here's MY YOUTUBE video tutorial as well BELOW

I hope I've instilled this knowledge into you so you may go forth and create your own glue gun stencils! Thanks for reading this week's blog, if you enjoyed this post and want more knowledge please subscribe to my newsletter

Much Love, Stay Crafty!

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