Watercoloring with stencils is a great way for watercolor beginners to get more comfortable with the medium, and it’s a quick and easy way to create completely eye-catching watercolor art pieces, too! In this week’s video (below), we’ll make a super cool diy watercolor stencil art piece using Oramask 813 Adhesive Stencil Film / Vinyl, which is fantastic for watercolor masking. I cut the stencil using a Silhouette Cameo die cutting machine, and one of the great things about using a digital file to make your stencil is that you can resize it up or down to coordinate with whatever project you’re using it for. I left the file at its original size, which was just right for framing in an 8×8 inch frame.
TIP : You’ll see in the video below that I go back in after I finish painting the entire stencil and add paint to some of the areas that I first painted. It’s a great way to create additional texture and color variation in the piece, but my paper did slightly warp after I painted it, and it pulled away from the stencil film in some small areas. So, if you go back and add paint to areas where your paper may have slightly warped, just be careful because some of the fresh paint may run under any areas where the paper has separated from the stencil vinyl. This happened on one of the circles in my project, and the slight bleed of color fit really well for this particular piece, but if you’re going for crisp lines and borders, then you’ll want to be careful if you go back and add paint to already painted areas later in the process.
Check out the video below to learn how to create easy diy watercolor stencil art:
Supplies Used in This Project
The following supply list contains affiliate links. I make a small commission if you purchase through these links, and I really appreciate it if you do!
– Hand Drawn Circles Stencil Cut File
– Silhouette Cameo 3 Electronic Cutting Tool
– Oracal Oramask 813 Adhesive Stencil Film / Vinyl
– Strathmore Bristol Smooth Paper
– ShinHan Tube Watercolors
– Mijello Silver Nano 40 Palette
– Post-It Tape, 1 Inch
– Heidi Swapp Minc Non-Stick Craft Mat
– two containers of water (one for rinsing the brush, the other for clean water for painting)
– paper towels (for absorbing excess watercolor)
– a spray mister (optional, for cleaning stencil – I used a Distress Ink Sprayer)
– the blue protective sheet from an old Silhouette Cameo mat (to store the stencil)
