Get Up Edina!

It seems as of late, I am hearing more and more people ask me all sorts of questions about stenciling. I thought I would make this easy and do a tutorial on it. Stenciling is one of my favorite hobbies, I've used it in reguards to etching glass, making shirts, doing urban art, and ahem...on the streets (Be careful!) On this tutorial, I will walk you step by step through doing a simple stencil. The more stencils you make and the more you experiment, the better you become! You will need: A photo editing program (I am using photoshop 7) An xacto knife/craft knife Material to make your stencil out of, I suggest one of the following -Card stock (this is good for one-run stencils. These tend to have foggy edges, but it is very easy to cut) -Acetate (great for running off with thicker media like acrylic. You MUST use on a horizontal surface though. Sort of difficult to cut) -Plastic sheets that can be purchased in the quilting section of your local craftstore (these last for FOREVER. Great for spraying, great for any sort of media. Crisp lines. However, these are VERY difficult to cut, but definitely worth it)

STEP TWO: I am starting off with this photo. I googled "upsetter" because I wanted the infamous lettering. First, I will desaturate it. (Photoshop: Image->Adjustments->Desaturate) I do not want Lee Perry's face on this. I'm keeping it simple! Just crop down to the letters using your cropping tool on your tool bar. (Left: source of stencil)

STEP THREE: The background noise is unneeded, so I'm just going to brush that out with the paint tool. After I am done with that, I will invert the colors, so when I print out the final pre-stencil, it will just be plain letters. (Photoshop: Image->Adjustments->Invert) (Left: Photo cropped and inverted)

STEP FOUR: Now, I don't want it vertical. I want this to be horizontal. I will create a new canvas that is much larger than what I need, so I have room to work with. I do mine at about 500x300. One at a time, copy each letter onto the new canvas by just selecting an area, or using the magic wand. Paste onto the new canvas straight across or in the offset manner like on the label. Once you're pleased with your results, crop the giant canvas down to size. You're almost done with editing! Here's the most important part to not screwing up your stencil. I do this in the editing process because if I don't, I always manage to forget. Look for "islands" in your stencil! Where any area you do not want media in that could get cut off. I chose to do letters as my example in the simple stencil because they are the best starter for looking for "islands". Islands are the holes in letters, like in "UPSETTER", "islands" are in the letter P and R. I am going to make a little connecter so there is no island in these letters. (Above: Final stencil product)

STEP FIVE: Once you are done checking for islands and think through your stencil (making sure all the pieces will pop out individually and not disrupt any other piece) you'll go ahead and do the last step of the editing process- Resizing. Think about what you would like to use your stencil on, and how large you would want it to be. I would like to use mine on clothing, so I will think about how wide it should be on say, a shirt, or a bag. I will resize my final edited image to that amount in inches (Photoshop: Image->Image size) Finally, print your final stencil image out on paper. If you are using a non-transparent media, I would suggest you take a pencil and scribble a good amount on the opposite side of the paper where your image lays at. Lay the final stencil image face up to you, and face down to your stencil media, and trace the image. The lead on the backside will transfer onto your stencil media. If you are using a transparent media, just trace right through. Tips & Techniques for cutting out your stencil: *If you would like sharper corners, try cutting in one direction around the perimeter of each shape or letter. *Cut in the same pressure throughout your whole stencil. *If you are working with something very light and tear-able, such as acetate sheets, when removing a piece from your stencil, make a slit in the center of the piece and pull it out that way, instead of ripping at a corner. Trying to remove a piece at a corner can cause tears in such a delicate material. *Practice! Your first stencil probably will not end up how you expect. Do not take something on too complicated. *NEVER cut in the direction toward your body. You could slip (especially using acetates and plastics) and hurt yourself. Practice extreme caution with xacto knives, they are much sharper than they seem! If anyone has any questions about this, contact me! I'll be more than happy to help you out!