Create Your Own Geometric Stencil in Minutes!

Geometric designs are all the rage lately in home design, but if you purchase stencils or vinyl it can get pricey. So I am going to show you how I made my own in a matter of minutes!

 I turned a plain dollar store vase into something completely unique and it was so easy to do!

The great thing about making a stencil like this is that you can use ANY shape on your Cricut cartridge or Silhouette layout. I have a Cricut, so I will be referencing that for his tutorial, but I'm assuming the same technique will apply for the Silhouette. The Cricut and Cricut Cake cartridges are interchangeable. I used my Cricut Expressions machine for this project.

Make sure that the "auto fill" option is selected and that your "paper saver" option is OFF.

 I used some inexpensive contact paper for this. No need to use vinyl or a more expensive contact paper. You can find rolls of this stuff in all sorts of funky patterns at the dollar store too. Perfect for stencils.

Cut our your contact paper so that it is 2" larger than your project in all directions. I wrapped mine around the vase and added the inches there. This way you don't have to worry about blank margins.

Choose your design. Something basic. I picked what I thought looked like a jazzed up quatrefoil design.

Set your size. I set mine at 1 1/4".

Set your cutting pressure to "low" or "min" It doesn't matter what your speed is set to. I usually keep mine towards the faster options.

The Cricut will automatically place your designs as close together as it can without over-lapping and as long as the "paper saver" option is not highlighted, it will be nice and uniform.

1.  Here is my stencil after I peeled out the outline.

2.  Save yourself a lot of headache by using transfer tape for your stencil. Cut it to the size of your stencil.

3. Turn over and peel the backing off of the contact paper and your stencil is ready to apply to any painting or etching project.

I chose to do acid etching this time.

4. Adhere your stencil to the vase/project and press firmly.

5. Gently peel away the transfer tape from the stencil. I think the stencil looks so pretty here (if only it was a plain contact paper or vinyl) so that is something to remember for the future. Creating a desing like this and just adhering it to the vase without the etching cream!

6. Apply your etching cream or paint according to the package directions.

7. Wash off your etching cream and remove the stencil.

It isn't easy photographing acid etched projects, but I will just tell you that in person, it looks amazing!

And it was SO easy to do!