Stencils can be used in a lot of creative ways and Children who are scared of putting something on paper can be encouraged using tools like Stencils. Not only the different shapes and images of stencils evoke an enthusiasm, their prints on paper make the children really excited. The Stencil Art Projects are here to invoke interest in art for children.

Buy stencils online for children of different ages.

Here are some stencil art projects you should try with children. These projects can be tried with even young children from five years of age.

Stencils on a topic

Usually stenciled sheets that are available in the market are based on a topic. You can get a sheet of images of different dinosaurs, cars, farm animals, or flowers. Even if there are images of the same animal like a horse, you can get it in different positions. All these images together can make a beautiful painting. Help the child create a background relevant to a topic and ask them to place the images in the way they want it.

Silhouette painting

Silhouette paintings always look beautiful. Create a bright background with acrylic paints and then apply the stenciled image on this background with dark paint or black. I usually use the watercolor wet on wet technique to create the background. Then once it dries, an image can be stenciled on it depending on the background.

Use the same stencil multiple times

This is useful especially to make the painting look busy and active. Print leaves and flowers on trees and bees and dragonflies in spring using the same stencil. This makes the child coordinate and make sense of it as a whole.

Negative image

The children create their own stencils using simple shapes. These can be geometric or any organic shape. Then either using chalk, pencil colors or soft pastels, print the shape randomly on paper with small strokes. Merge it on paper with your fingers. In the Msnovak Blogspot, she calls it an organized chaos. Her students made beautiful autumn leaves using this technique.

Japanese Notans

Here is an innovative way to use stencils. Notan in the Japanese language means the balance between dark and light. The shapes are cut from black and white paper so that they alternate in their positive and negative shapes. Since one is the mirror image of the other, a stencil will help. Print the images on paper and alternately color them black and white.

Tessellations

Tessellation is a fun way to use your own stencils. The children imaginatively think on different shapes they repeatedly print leaving no space in between. There are different ways to create tessellations and the translational tessellation might be the easiest one for small children.

Lettering

Children love to write their names. And it is the easiest to way to write letters is to use stencils. Let them print their nameplates and hang or pin it in their room. There is a number of ways to add colors and patterns after the letters have been traced.

Create an abstract background

One of the best ways to use a stencil is to create an abstract background. These stencils help the paintings have depth and help to make the background look interesting. Use any object to create this background. There are also stencils available in the market that have abstract shapes.

There are many ways to create a stenciled image. Some of the best ways to use for children are

Use acrylic paints with foams and sponges.

Use pencils or markers to outline the image and fill them with patterns.

You can spray paints from a small spray bottle. Blow pens are also a nice way to print an image.

For negative images, as shown above, use chalk or soft pastels to trace the image and create a smudged effect.

There are few things to be kept in mind when using stencils with children

• Take stencils which are large in size and do not have intricate thin designs as it is difficult to paint in between the fine-lined cuts and sometimes the image gets blurred.
• Try using acrylic paints without water. The drier the paint, the easier it is to get a clearer image
• Paints should not be taken in lumps as it smears. Small quantities of paint will help.
• It is better if you can help the child to hold the stencil on paper or use a small painter’s tape to keep the stencil steady in a place.
• Wipe the stencil with a wet wipe on both sides of the stencil everytime you use it
• When you are creating stencils yourself to get images, use thick paper so that the paper stays in place.
• Writing and decorating can be best done with markers or sketchpens. They have finer tips and it is easy to get proper sharp images.

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