Looking for stencil craft ideas to spark your creativity? This week, I’m sharing how one stencil design can be transformed in six fun and unique ways! Using the Hand Carved Flower Stencil by Kassy’s Parlour, created by artist Kassandra Louise Designs, I turned this single file into a home décor sign, cup decal, jewelry pendants, painted canvas, and more. It’s incredible how one design can inspire so many creative projects.
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When you look at a design file, do you see one project idea, or can you envision it on multiple projects? I started the Crafting Creativity series to help spark ideas and inspiration to do more with your files.
In this episode, I’m featuring this Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour.
Crafting Creativity Projects – Stencil Craft Ideas
Project #1 – Stencils with Stencil Material
Once I got started cutting stencils out, it was hard to stop.
These are cut from 6 mil stencil material and it cut beautifully.
Here is a look at the stencil before I unloaded it from the machine. For harder to cut materials, checking the cut before unloading the machine is a great habit to get into. If the cut did not complete, you can send it again and it should cut in the same place. This is great for materials such as stencil materials that dull blades quicker and may need extra passes to cut through.
Once the stencil is cut, it can be used for many different projects and mediums.
One thing to keep in mind is that stencil material is plastic and plastic will dull the blade quicker than other materials. It is perfectly normal to have to increase the blade settings or passes the more that is cut. And if you are cutting this material a lot, you may go through more blades than other thinner, easier to cut materials.
I cut this 6 mil stencil material using the preset for Stencil Material in the Silhouette Studio software. All I changed was to increase the passes to 2 and then when that started having a few hang ups, I increased it to 3 passes.
Additional Resources:
- How to Make Custom Stencils with Silhouette: Tips, Materials & Project Ideas
- Perfect Cut Settings with Silhouette
Supplies Used:
- Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour
- 6 mil stencil material
- Silhouette Cameo or Silhouette Curio 2
- Silhouette Autoblade
Project #2 – Card Background with Stencil
Have you ever used a Gel Press or Gelli Plate before? This is such a fun technique!
Basically, a gel press is a jelly plate that you can add paint or other mediums on top of and then you press a piece of paper over top of it and pull the paint off. You can layer colors, add textures, and have lots of options.
Here are a couple of pulls that I did using the stencil on top of the Gel Press.
These can turn out so neat and each one is unique. Once dry the pages can be used for many projects such as cards, mixed media pages, tags, backgrounds and more!
I used two of the gel prints to make this card and then stamped with black ink directly on top of the print. It turned out pretty neat with the paint showing through the black ink.
Supplies Used:
- Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour
- Neenah 110 lb Cardstock
- Mixed Media Paper
- Gel Press Plate
- Brayer
- Paint
- Paper Trimmer
- Glassboard Magnetic Mat – use code SILHOUETTESECRETS to save 15%
Project #3 – Home Decor Sign
For this project, I opened the stencil design, changed the fill color to transparent and then right clicked and chose “Release Compound Path”. This will break up the design into pieces. I then deleted all the pieces around the full flower design. Then selected all of the flower pieces, right click and choose “Make Compound Path”.
I am using a 8″ frame, so drew a square and sized it to 8″ x 8″. I selected the flower design and filled it with black, just to see it better. Then started playing around with patterns. I filled the flower design with a pattern and decreased the transparency in the Fill Color panel. Then I started filling the background square with patterns and testing them out.
Here is a look at my working file where you can see the different pattern options I was playing around with.
Then I printed the design onto Epson Presentation Paper – Matte and cut it with my paper trimmer.
When there are straight lines and a larger image as shown above, an old school paper trimmer does the trick versus trying to set up for a print and cut. I use Silhouette Studio to do the design work and printing and then with 4 swipes, my paper trimmer has the project ready to go.
And the best part about this is, you can change it out whenever you feel like. Print a new image and swap it out to coordinate with the season, your decor, or your mood.
Additional Resources:
- Design with Pattern Fill: Tips for Stunning Results
- Pattern Fill Resources
- 4 Ways to Open Patterns in Silhouette
Supplies Used:
- Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour
- Angista Script Font
- Blue Watercolor Texture by Sophie Gallo – Design #416225
- Pink Blue Mixed Media by Clikchic Designs – Design #1240661
- Silhouette Studio Software
- Epson Presentation Paper – Matte
- Paper Trimmer
- Printer: Canon TS9521C
- 8″ x 8″ black frame
Project #4 – Cup Decal
I cut several flower decals from patterned adhesive vinyl to decorate my new travel coffee cup. I used the same technique as described above to separate the flower design from the stencil and cut individual flower decals.
After I weeded the decals, I cut them apart and then applied transfer tape and placed each one individually around the cup, so I could control where they were and how they fit together.
Here is a close up of the decal where I hope you can see a bit of it’s sparkle & shine.
Tips for Creating Cup Decals with Adhesive Vinyl
Surface Area
When applying adhesive vinyl to a surface that may be handled often, you want to keep in mind the size of the pieces of the design. The smaller the piece, the less adhesive there is to stick to the surface of the blank. So thin letters, intricate flourishes, delicate designs may not stick well to the surface of an object that’s handled or washed.
Even if using “permanent” adhesive vinyl, that doesn’t mean it will never come off or lift. Permanent adhesive vinyl simply means it has a stronger adhesive on the backside than “temporary” vinyl once cured. You can still peel it off, pick it off, scrape it off, etc.
The greater the surface area of the solid pieces of the design, the more adhesive there is to stick to the object.
There are a couple things you can do to help with a decal staying put longer.
- thicken fonts or enlarge small areas of the design
- eliminate the smaller or tiny sections of a design if possible
- clean the surface of the cup with an alcohol swab & let it dry completely – this cleans off any dust or oils off the surface that can repel the adhesive
- after applying the decal, let it sit for 48-72 hours for the adhesive to set up
- apply a bit of heat to help the adhesive vinyl stick – not too much, you don’t want to melt it
Surface of the Cup
Stain resistant, nonstick, or silicone surfaces are designed to repel anything from sticking to it. Even if you are able to get a decal to stick initially, it usually does not for long.
It doesn’t just apply to cups though. There are a lot more stain resistant paints on the market and being used to paint interior walls of homes. Stain resistant is designed so things don’t stick to it, so even a “permanent” adhesive vinyl decal may not stick.
Textured surfaces can also be more difficult for a decal to stick to or it may not last long on a texture surface.
Placement of the Decal
When placing decals onto a cup, keep in mind where it is placed. I purposely placed my designs higher up on the cup knowing that it would be set into a car cup holder.
The more a cup is handled, the greater chance there is that the decal can catch, lift, or come off. This would include things like someone picking at the design, washing the cup, scrubbing the cup, sliding in and out of a car cup holder, being tossed around in a bag, etc.
And…
Sometimes things just happen and it won’t last. The best part about having a cutting machine is that you can cut another one. Or you can take the current one off, clean the cup, and apply a new decal to fit your mood.
Additional Resources:
- Offset Tool to Thicken a Font
- Test Cuts with Silhouette
- Tips to Cutting Thin Fonts & Designs
- Adhesive Vinyl Tutorials
- Creating a Layered Vinyl Decal Class
Supplies Used:
- Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour
- Patterned Adhesive Vinyl
- Glitter Laminate Adhesive Overlay
- Cup
Project #5 – Custom Jewelry for Pendants, Bag Tags, Keychains, Earrings…
I created a collection of jewelry pendants with matching earrings, bag tags, keychains and more
Once I got started with this, it was hard to stop and I ended up creating quite a few.
When working with digital supplies, it’s so easy to change things up and I think the Mod Podge Sparkle added so much to this project.
See all the written details in this blog post – Sparkle & Shine: DIY Custom Jewelry HERE
Or watch the video tutorial on the Silhouette Secrets+ YouTube channel HERE.
And by request, I also created a set of printable instructions that can be found HERE too.
Supplies Used:
- Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour
- Silhouette cutting machine
- Silhouette Studio Software
- Silhouette Autoblade
- Epson Presentation Paper – Matte
- Printer: Canon TS9521C
- Bezel Pendant Trays Blanks 25 mm (larger)
- Bezel Pendant Tray Blanks (smaller)
- Mod Podge Sparkle
- E6000 adhesive
- Craft stick
- Foam Brush or small paint brush
- Silicone Mat
- Digital Patterns as desired
Project #6 – Painted Canvas Decor
I tried several different things with these and they are still a work in progress. Some things didn’t turn out such as using the stencil with white sharpies or sponging on white texture paste. I had too much bleed, so I ended up painting another layer to cover it up.
When the white Sharpie and texture paint didn’t work out on this one, I switched gears and cut a stencil from Silhouette adhesive backed stencil material and started filling it in with TCW Stencil Butter. OH MY! I have to say that the Silhouette adhesive backed stencil material worked AWESOME! Even with the texture of the canvas, it worked great! I will definitely be using this more in the future. The only drawback is that it is letter size and I would have loved to create a larger stencil.
But I made it work. I had to let the first flower dry and then I added more.
All I need now is the perfect saying to add to it. Let me know if you have any ideas that jump out at you when you see the project!
The next one has several layers of paint on it, but ultimately, I ended up with a solid pink background. I had cut a 12″ x 12″ stencil to use with this, but then I started looking at all of those negative pieces that were left over from the stencil and wondered if I could use those in some way.
I ended up applying transfer tape and picking up all of those pieces that I then used as a negative stencil on the wet paint. It was really just a “let’s see what happens moment”. I just laid the transfer tape on top of the wet paint with the negative pieces attached and smoothed it down to see what would happen.
It gave it an interesting pattern. Once the paint was dry, I then simply traced around with the white Sharpie Creative Maker and then I added a layer of Mod Podge Sparkle on top of it.
I am not sure if it’s finished yet or if I will add more to it. Just waiting a bit to see where the art goes.
Additional Resources:
- How to Make Custom Stencils with Silhouette: Tips, Materials & Project Ideas
- Perfect Cut Settings with Silhouette
Supplies Used:
- Hand Carved Flower Stencil Pattern by Kassy’s Parlour
- Silhouette cutting machine
- Silhouette Studio Software
- Silhouette Autoblade
- TCW Stencil Butter
- Palette Knife
- Paint
- Silhouette Adhesive Backed Stencil Material
- 6 mil stencil material
- Sharpie Creative Markers
- 10″ x 10″ Canvas Panels
All of these projects were completed using just 1 stencil design file from Kassy’s Parlour.
Find designs by Kassy’s Parlour on Etsy HERE.
Follow along with Kassandra Louise Designs of Kassy’s Parlour on:
A great big thank you to Kassy for contributing the free file for the Silhouette Secrets+ newsletter for the month of August! If you missed grabbing the free design in August, it is available in the HERE.
This year I started offering a free file each month for Silhouette Secrets+ newsletter subscribers. I love designing in the Silhouette Studio software and have shared some of my creations as well as look forward to collaborating with more artists in the future too!
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Did this spark your imagination? ✨ It’s amazing how one single file can be transformed into so many unique projects! I loved exploring all the creative possibilities with this design. You can find even more inspiration and project ideas in the Crafting Creativity section on the website — check it out HERE.
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