We’re going smaller!

Make cards with our new Stencil1 stencils

Stencil1 nature stencils and our acid-free multi-surface inks in action

Stencil1 nature stencils and our acid-free multi-surface inks in action

Break out the magnifying glass! We are now offering even smaller stencils for you. Use these mini stencil sets with themes like Nature, Patterns, Urban, Birds, and more to create greeting cards or artist trading cards or even small tasteful embellishments on clothing! The application is strictly up to your imagination! These stencils work ideally with our Stencil1 Ink Sprayers which are multi-surface sprays perfect for paper and fabric!

Visit Stencil1 @ The National Stationery Show

Yes, Stencil1 will be taking part in the National Stationery Show at Booth # 1736 with designer friends eieio May 18-21 in NYC at the Javitz Center! Come see our new stencils, see our new book, come see me! Hope to see you there!

HOW Cool!

How Magazine Cover featuring Stencil1

The new June issue of HOW Magazine features none other than Stencil1! HOW Magazine is a great resource for learning step-by-step instructions on HOW to do a variety of creative processes. This issue focuses on getting your paws off the computer and playing with new mediums like stenciling, screen printing, and block printing.  I hope you find the stencil section inspiring in your own work and play.

Going Cardboard Crazy!!

Challenge accepted and done!  Love, love, love the idea of making posters using Stencil 1 images! Just the touch for spicing up a dull and dreary home! Especially as we break out of our winter coats and start soaking in the sunshine!

For this set of posters, I went cardboard crazy! It’s a great surface for the Stencil 1 sprays, it’s pretty cheap and available..visit a dumpster or a friend who’s just moved..it cuts well and is pretty darn durable. So, for these, I primed them all first with white acrylic paint. I like to paint just a small square, leaving a nice border of cardboard all of the way around..it’s also handy if later I want to mat or frame. After the paint has dried, add some shots of color with the Stencil 1 sprays. I usually go to town on this part of the design..spray a little, brayer to move the colors around, spray some more, blot with towel to remove dark spots..play, play, play..Once that layer is dry, I go back with my chosen image and stencil it in white acrylic paint..pretty loose, as this will just be an under layer of white. Once this layer is dry..color can be added again to color in the image..or left solid (like the tapes and dj piece). So, when you have a dry background..last thing to do is layer the stencils on again and stencil in black acrylic paint for a real pop! I’ll be back with the next round soon-elaine..0h and thanks Jen for the pics!!

Stencil Print Making 101

So rather than watch tv last nite, I went to my studio for a few hours to make some prints. Earlier in the day I purchased some archival sheets of paper that are about 18″x24″, about $1.90 each.  If you want to make some art for your walls rather than stencil your walls, this is a fun project. To do prints like this, you will need stencils, ink sprays, a stencil brush, cardboard, and scrap paper.

So I laid out a canvas tarp to catch any overspray and piece of cardboard to allow the paper to lay flat. I knew I would mostly be using my Stencil1 Sprays to make the print. These are fabric inks that are acid-free and archival. They are also non-aerosol! I had two very different concepts, one being a colorful explosion of stencils and the other more of an anti-war poster. What can I say, I’m a Gemini.

Stencil1 print

Archival print by Ed Roth of Stencil1

Archival Print by Stencil1

Archival print by Ed Roth of Stencil1

It’s a quick and easy process. I basically placed my stencils where I wanted them, masked out the areas outside the stencil so my overspray would paint my paper, I used scrap paper, and then sprayed lightly into the stencil area. When done with one stencil area, I carefully lifted the stencil up, still keeping it level with the surface so no excess paint on the stencil surface would drip onto my print. To get the excess paint off the stencil you can place a piece of paper on top of the stencil to soak up that excess paint, and in doing so you are also making a reverse print on that paper! That’s a tip from my gal pal Elaine.

As for the lettering in the banner in the war print, I did use a stencil brush and our Old English Stencil letters. What’s nice about doing lettering with the stencils is the mylar we use is semi transparent so you can see exactly where you want to align your type.

I proceeded to place stencils where I thought they would look nice, choose different colors, and continued this way. Creating your own composition is the fun part! Symmetrical or not, color choices, placement, it all comes from you.

So If you decide to make some poster prints using our stencils, please send us images and we wil post to the blog! Thanks!