How to do a Chevron Stencil without any bleeds

 

I've been asked to do a chevron stenciling tutorial a couple times and I'm just now getting around to actually doing it. When I first started painting things more complex than just solid or distressed, I was constantly running into bleeds. It's so silly because this is really really easy; I promise!

First I painted the front, back, and sides with 3 coats of my base color. Do this with the lighter color of the two shades you plan to use. You could do this with more than one color too, so just paint the base color the color you want to have every other stripe. Wait for the base coat to be really dry. You can test this by pressing your finger nail into a small area; if it leaves a dent, it's not dry enough yet. Mine dried for about 3 hours.

 

I then cut a full 12x12 sheet of contact paper in a chevron pattern on my Silhouette Cameo. I also just heard they have chevron Frog tape. I googled it quick, and I like my chevron to be a little taller, but the tape will work the same way if you don't have a machine to cut contact paper with.

 

Then you just place your contact paper. I don't use any transfer tape. Contact paper is pretty forgiving. If it sticks to itself, it usually peels away from itself pretty easy. To keep them evenly spaced, I temporarily place a piece where I don't want it.

Easy!

Then I take my scraper make sure the edges are pressed on really well. Now, I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the most important part! After you have your chevron on, you are going to paint the base color again over the entire thing. This seals the stencil and if there were any places not quite pressed down enough, it won't bleed through with your next color. This can be a very thin coat. Just enough to cover and seal the edges of your stencil.

I wait till the sealing coat is mostly dry and move quickly through the next couple of steps. I paint my next color(s) on letting them dry slightly in between each coat. This time I did three coats of the brown to get a good coverage. Maybe 5 minutes of dry time between each coat. While it's still tacky, peel your stencil off...

...and you should be left with beautiful, bleed free, chevron!

To pick up an already painted bunny, head on over to The Sensory Emporium!