DIY Stencils with Hot Glue!

| thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Hi friends! Today i am going to show you how to make beautiful custom stencils with hot glue, have a look at this quick video:

I love how they grip the paper and the ink does not seep under. All you need to make them in a hot glue gun, glue sticks and a silicone mat. I recommend using a high temp (or the high setting) glue gun because you will be melting a lot of glue. All you have to do is draw a design on the silicone mat with the glue, let it cool and your stencil is ready to use! How fun is that? I hope you try this tip for making stencils for pennies! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

48 thoughts on “DIY Stencils with Hot Glue!”

  1. Lindsay, I just love your video tutorials. You have such terrific ideas and present them in a way that they don’t intimidate me. Your attitude/approach comes across is so easy-going, light-hearted, and fun…. knowing the water heater is going to kick in might be a big issue for some people and you just laugh it off and are not afraid to let us know you have tried this umpteen times already and see that in the words of Bob Ross our overturned hurdles (aka “mistakes”) can be fondly looked at as “happy accidents”. On top of all of these characteristics that have had me coming back to your blog, following you on facebook, and watch (and re-watching) several of your youtube videos, you have a natural artistic gift and I want to thank you for sharing it and inspiring me.

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  3. Hope you had a great holiday. I look foward to your new posts daily. I try most of the watercolor ones. Keep them coming.

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  5. Lindsay, you are amazing – I love you!!! What a brilliant idea (I don’t care if you didn’t come up with it yourself…or you kinda did, but others came up with it on their own, too). I have been wanting to start a journal and play with stencils, and you’ve given me the inspiration! Love you always! Great inspiration! Great personality!!

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  7. Great effects and loved the trees! I must admit I did not know what a silicone mat was though-googled it and now off to Walmart – 🙂 Learn something every day!

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  8. Lindsay,

    Could you use parchment paper on the back of a baking sheet or jelly roll sheet if you don’t have a silicone mat?

    I plan to try it one day just to see.

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    1. The plastic mats from the dollar store also work and are much cheaper than the silicone mats. I think they were 2 for $1 and are called kitchen mats in Dollar Tree.

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  9. I was excited to try this … I used many sticks of hot glue without testing it first. The problem was, I put waxed paper on my baking sheet and couldn’t get the glue to release.

    later I tried a small sample directly on the baking sheet and released it easily. That should teach me to read all the details, but I’m afraid I’ll never learn. I’m excited to try again now that I know how.

    Update … I just read that you can soak off waxed paper in water. I wonder if my craft trash can was emptied …

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  12. WoW! Now THAT was super. Thanks Lindsay. One request, I didn’t quite get the cloud technique. Sorry, I’m an SML on some things. Can we have ‘overs’ on that one? Please. Midnightair. . . sml :: slow maze learner. LOL…

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  13. OH!! Never Mind! I went into full screen and watched it several times, and I got the idea down! Moving right along. . . Midnightair.

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    1. You are wonderful!!! Tho, you are getting me into a lot of trouble !! My new husband does not get the house full of craft supplies thing… But he does love the finished items. Thanks soooooo much, you have made retirement a blast!!!!!!!!!

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  21. I’ve commented on two of your YouTube videos and in fact one was tonight. I came on here though to see your blog and I discovered something. I am totally like you. I have always loved art and I love to try it all. I am a strong believer that art is such a good form of therapy, especially for depression and anxiety. I suffer/ed from that but with art and proper medication and help I have come so far. I would love to help people suffering from this and other ailments discover how art can help so much. I’m pretty sure you are who I aspire to be. Maybe one day I will be as well knowledged as you. I will continue to watch your videos and check out your blog.
    Thanks for sharing your talents with the world.
    Susanne

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    1. thanks so much for writing! i think it is impossible to worry when you are creating:) Take care and thins for writing!

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  22. I love these stencils! They were so easy to make. I didn’t have a silicone mat so I used parchment paper instead.

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    2. I must seriously be doing something wrong! We tried 2 hot glue gun (1 with low heat and 1 with both options) and with no silicone mat, tried aluminum foil, a place mat and freezer paper and the hot glue stuck to themall and could not be lifted! The kids were pretty disappoited as it looked so simple in the video and also the replies with alternative surfaces worked for everyone…what are we doing wrong? All glue sticks are alike right? 🙂

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        1. The freezer paper (used to be called butcher paper) is coated on one side so I thought they were the same thing….must not be if one worked and the other didn’t 🙂 Is the parchment sold in the grocery stores along with the foil, wax paper aisle? If I need to go to the store I’ll probably just buy the silicone mat (ha-did not know about that either!)

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          1. Just an update on surfaces:freezer/butcher, wax paper and aluminum foil do not work as the glue sticks (well) to them all BUT the parchment paper worked beautifully! Thank you for a fun tip as well as the parchment paper suggestion (that paper also is a great surface for kids working in sculpey clay!)

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  25. Hi Lindsay — I’m fairly new to your blog and I’ve really been enjoying the posts and videos.

    This is a fantastic idea!! I’d really love to see a better look at your cloud stencil. When you showed the journal page where you had used it, it looked like real clouds and not just “cartoonish” or whimsical clouds. I have been trying to use some of my dies to make stencils and some of them work well and others, of course, don’t. But, using my cloud dies, of course just gives the same whimsical cloud shape as the die and I’d love to have a stencil that is so realistic like yours!

    I’m not great at drawing, but I’m going to give drawing with my glue gun a try and make some stencils since yours were so fantastic!!!!!

    Thanks in advance!!!!

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  27. Love this post! Art with Yogi blog recommended.
    I tried it out and loved it, I would like to link up with my Blog if that’s ok.
    Thanks in advance
    Christine
    xx

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  28. This is BRILLIANT, tried it this afternoon. I decided to spray non-stick cooking spray on a piece of glass – and it works brilliantly, the glue comes off so easily without tugging at the stencil! Also made the inks, fabulous idea, well communicated, thank you!

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  29. Lindsay, I love this. I tried it, but I don’t have a silicon mat, so I tried it on freezer paper. Oh, well. I learned hot glue sticks quite well to the waxy side of freezer paper, and freezer paper holds up quite well to water. I soaked the stencil and stuck on freezer paper for days and it still took me a long time to remove the paper. But I’m still excited about trying this. Do you think it would work on a cheap plastic cutting mat? I’m going to give it a try–this time small amount of glue first. LOL. I just discovered you on YouTube over the summer and have so enjoyed your videos. Quite addicted. In fact I’ve been marathon watching Frugal Crafter videos far too much — need to do a little less watching and a little more doing! Keep up the great work. Thanks for all your inspiration!

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