Zip pouches made from the finished fabric.
The fabric after it was sprayed.
A stencil made by drawing with a glue gun on a silicon mat.
Homemade spray paints.
Another fabric piece.
I was looking around the internet and found some images for stencils being made from a glue gun. I found this absolutely thrilling and had to try it right away. We ended up using up all the sticks I had on hand, otherwise we would have made more. These stencils are reusable, easy to wipe down, and extremely fun to make. You can freehand it or trace letters or a pre-drawn design (just tuck it under the silpat, which you can see though.) Making the spray paints was quick and easy. This was a big hit and gave some very pretty papers and fabric to play with.
How we did it:
- Using a silpat, we piped hot glue in patterns to make a reusable stencil. We drew hearts, circles, and squares. This worked great using a high-heat hot glue gun, a good one, not a little dinky one. The glue dried quickly and peeled right off.
- Then we made the spray paints using liquid acrylic paint and filling little empty spray bottles, found for 99 cents in the travel supplies section at Target. We used about 1/2 paint 1/2 hot water. The hot water and a few good shakes reduce the clumps. I mixed the water and paint first in a glass measuring cup with a spout, and then poured it into the spray bottles.
- We sprayed on sketch paper and white card stock. The more we sprayed the more the pattern bled, which was pretty but ended up looking just like wet-on-wet water color. The card stock held the stencil pattern better.
- For the fabric, we used lightweight muslin I had on hand. This material bled the least and held the color really well. These dried in the sun in about 15 minutes. They get a little stiff with the acrylic on the surface, but are the prefect stiffness for pouches.
Some notes/tips/thoughts:
- We used pastel colors to begin with, which made the diluted spray paint very light. The faded look is really pretty, just not what we were expecting. I have already made a darker blue and sprayed a few sheets again now that they are dry. Working in layers and letting the paper dry in between makes the stencil crisper.
- The gold paint, while hard to see in these photos, adds a really nice touch.
- Not all colors spray as well, some spit and spatter more, which is a nice effect, but good to know and plan around. Yellow is a great color to make hot spots with.
- We also had great fun with this polka dot stencil.
