hello everybody I just wanted to make a
quick video explaining what I did to
make my
my stencil grids so I'm sure there's a
lot of ways to do this and I'm sure that
you can get these materials pre-made but
I just was doing it with what I had
already in my house so um this is just
an option some of you might already have
these materials especially if you
already own a Cricut and cigarettes are
making your own stickers and things like
that so
basically I'm just using very basic
cheap materials I'm using the three mil
pouches from the amazonbasics brand and
for the laminator and I'm also just
using avery sticker paper this is the
clear full sheet label sticker paper and
what I've seen people do to make
stencils as some people who already have
laminate pouches just go ahead and
laminate them with nothing in them like
this one right here and then you can cut
out whatever shapes that you want
using your Cricut it's the LED or even
by hand just whatever you're using to
cut with this works just fine and
especially if you're using a five mil
which if you're going to buy materials I
would suggest the five mil it's a little
bit thicker more sturdy but this is what
I have um
the only thing is is that I I like to
make sure things are lined up straight
and so I was thinking to myself because
I've seen
stencils that you can purchase that have
gridlines in them and I thought to
myself well what if I put grid lines in
the laminate pouch but the problem with
just printing out grid paper or using
actual grid papers as not translucent
enough to really see where you're
putting it and
then I realized well I have clear
sticker paper so I'll just put the clear
sticker paper into the pouch and lo and
behold it actually works pretty well and
so just how I do it is yes Ava sorry for
the for the toddler
I just use a little notebook here to
hold that down and
the sticker paper works really well for
this because the the cuts are at an
angle to remove the backing so what I do
is I remove the backing from one corner
and then the edges that still have all
the backing on them that's what I put
into the
the pocket of the pouch here and I just
kind of lined that up in there I try to
get as straight as I can
but it does have a pretty generous
margin on it
and then I just put it down here and
then we're going to pull this back and
we're going to remove the backing and
we're going to pull this up nice and
slow it doesn't have to be perfect
because what we're going to do is we're
going to burnish it to remove any air
pockets that get caught
sorry I have a toddler
jumping on me
so we're both in the computer right now
so this might get a little bumpy
and then what I do when I get right to
the end here because remember we have
that pocket that we kind of put it into
as I take a bit quick stick but you can
use just whatever flathead Phillips
screwdriver you can use a mechanical
pencil with the lead put away or heck if
you have one of those little what's that
called that purple thing for pushing out
corners for those of you who sew or you
could just use your tools that you have
with your curricular silhouette but I
use that
to get the sticker back into
that little
pouch there
yeah pouch
okay so now that that's in there I'm I'm
just going to take a gift card because
I'm sitting where I plan so I use that
for washi but you could use your actual
burnishing tool that comes with your
Cricut or silhouette or just whatever
credit card gift card
and I'm just going to push all
the air bubbles out and I don't know if
you can hear it
if you can hear over my toddler hey Shh
but you can kind of hear the air
and hear those air bubbles coming out
now make sure you don't dig into your
sticker paper with whatever you're using
to do this I have a few
where there is a
accidentally tore the paper a little bit
and I've got a stick now really
stubborn one right there okay anyway
just on the the trick is just to work
from your center out
high
and just go
nice and slow
no need to need to rush there we go
I actually really like the Avery sticker
paper for this because
it's not overly adhesive like it's not
not a super strong adhesive so it works
really well for getting all these air
bubbles out if you were to use one that
is a really strong
adhesive then you're increasing your
chances of tearing the sticker paper you
might not even be able to get the
bubbles out so
so I've actually been really happy with
this product for this specific purpose
looks like I got some
cred on the edge of my card yeah make
sure your card is clean otherwise you
get crud on your paper so well that's
fine okay so that's all burnished out
use your hand to feel for any more
bubbles
like I found another one right there
which I mean honestly you can use your
hand varnish to just the tools are a
little bit easier and consistent getting
them out
okay so that's all good and then I just
flip this over
and drag it out
and then um these laminate pouches
they're not laminate pouches aren't
sticky
but they kind of hold together just
envious static cling because they are a
plastic
so that's really helpful and then you
just want to maybe hold it up to the
light make sure you don't have any
fuzzies or hairs or in my case cat hair
inside the pouch and then you just run
it through the laminator and once you
run it through the laminator
it comes out looking like this and
again this is a translucent sticker
paper so now when I'm going to line up
my stencils I can see the grid but I
like there's enough of that grid that
you can see it to line things up but you
can definitely see through to your
planner or your scrapbook whatever using
your stencil on so this is a great way
to make some stencils with just some
things that you might already have in
your home and it's fairly cheap none of
these materials are super expensive
actually the most expensive thing is the
laminator itself
and I've had it for years so as far as
specific laminators I use um a scotch
laminator that is um be replaced with a
new model but I'm really happy with it
and I'm not sure if they're all
completely sold out yet but
there were like Walgreens and places
like that that had them like super cheap
so you might want to check out and see
if you can get anything like that
but there are so many laminators and I'm
actually a really big fan of the Amazon
basics brands don't waste your money
getting scotch laminate pouches they are
so expensive and it's absolutely insane
the Amazon basics brand that I use is um
I got a hundred of these three mil
for
$12.49 which if you've ever seen how
much they the Scotch brand charges for
laminate pouches you'll understand this
is a much better deal and they do hold
up really well I have a bunch of things
laminated that I use
for it like an outdoor display that we
do every year and so it's things are
constantly being pulled out and handled
and it's actually a Highland Festival
and we run a clan tent so we have all of
our materials for people to look at
bound and laminate or not bound but
encased in laminate and it's protected
them from weather I mean they're in
storage they're get pulled out they get
handled by hundreds of people and it's
been in use for about three years now
and it's not even rough on the edges so
really there's no reason I can think of
to spend money on that brand name when
you can get on and so on super cheap and
if you have Prime it's free shipping and
I don't have any personal experience
with the amazonbasics thermal laminator
but it's got really good reviews so if
you're looking to get a laminator
they're really useful for a lot of
things
but as far as making stencils go I would
get the five mil or higher but the three
mil works if it's what you already have
and yeah that's about it so what I'm
going to do is I'm going to put this in
my Cricut and I don't know if you can
see but I just got a PDF
for the grid paper and I chose one that
has
excuse me that has four lines per inch
with the inch lines the index lines
thickened so when I put this on my
cutting sheet the cutting
Wow sorry just having a total
moment here but when I put it on the the
cutting pad the sticky pad I will line
up the grids with the grid already on
the cutting mat as opposed to lining up
the edges because it's pretty straight
here but I can't guarantee that it's
perfectly straight so I will line up
lines with is to make sure that the
shapes are cutting out actually on
the the correct line because if they're
a little bit off and it kind of puts the
entire grid
useless so anyway it's worked out pretty
well and I'll have a separate video for
cutting this on the Cricut
because that actually most people and my
circles use a silhouette so that's
that's fine and
yeah I don't know it works really well
and I've been really happy with them and
it's just using stuff I already have my
house I hope this helps you out and have
a great day bye