Kind of a stenciling DIY

I love stenciling, I found a DIY article about it while trawling through Rookie Mag in January and I've become a little obsessed with it. I find it so easy to create an image and really pleasing look, the block colours and the clean lines created what I think of as a good aesthetic. 

While the Rookie article was fantastic I had  to alter it a little to suit me, I have no idea what refrigerator paper is but I doubt we had it in the house and I dont like to waste ink so rather than printing off the images as it suggests in the guide I just traced it straight from the computer screen onto thick-ish card. Apparently refrigerator paper is sticky on one side and will stick to the fabric/whatever you're stenciling onto, instead I used a glue stick on the back of the stencil to make it stick.

These were done on my first time stenciling, Morrisey and my babe Bowie, which looks pretty full on for a first try but they really aren't that complicated.

For paint I used some fabric paint which I suggest using if you're putting a stencil onto clothing or fabric as it will dye the fibre rather than Acrylic which will have a plastic like texture. It doesn't really matter which exact paint, I use a mix of different brands as different paints create different cool results. 

One thing I do suggest is using a sponge to apply the paint, it gives a much more even spread of colour and texture and is a lot easier to work with than a brush.

Some band patches I made and stitched onto my school bag to be cool. I'm thinking of buying some black paint and doing a bunch of these to sell on my etsy shop as they're so easy to make.

These were the patches that I did last week in preparation for Reading. You may be confused as to what the Dirty Water Dogs are, quite rightly as it genuinely is ridiculous, so settle down and I'll tell you a little tale.

Last Christmas, when term's coming to an end and the teachers are running out of lessons to give, in one of our classes we were given a 'Christmas quiz' to keep us busy. It had been a long day and we'd gone a little bit insane and one friend decided to start rapping the Christmas quiz. 

This was the birth of the Dirty Water Dogs.

We have an album, including the single 'A to the G' and the Christmas No. 1 'Christmas is Shitmas'

Really it's just me and my mates prating about making up bad rap lyrics but we have fun.

This previously plain hip flask is now completely super cool.

Once I actually finish it

If you want to try stenciling yourself and my crummy advice wasn't super helpful, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you with some better instructions

xxx

Rosie