Here’s how I made the Pee Wee Herman stencil from Crafty Chicas craft night. You can use this method with any type of printed stencil, and I’ll include some resources at the end of this post so you can find or make your own.

What you’ll need:

• printed stencil or photo (if using a photo, make sure you use the linked tutorial at the end of this post to turn it into a stencil)
• contact paper (a great alternative to freezer paper, and it’s reusable until it loses its tackiness)
• thick cardboard or a cutting mat
• exacto knife
• tape
• acrylic paint
• fabric or material to paint on
• sponge brush

Start off with a stencil. I used this Pee Wee Herman stencil from Spraypaintstencils.com.

Tape the stencil down to a piece of thick cardboard or a cutting mat. Cover it with clear contact paper and tape the contact paper down. This will leave less room for error as the contact paper is a little slippery. Start cutting along the lines of the stencil with an exacto knife.

Keep cutting. You’ll see the image start to emerge from the contact paper. Remove the cut pieces when you’re all done.

This is what it looks like when it’s complete.

Remove the tape from the contact paper. Your stencil is ready to use. (Don’t freak out on this step if it doesn’t look quite like you thought it would. I thought for sure that this would end up looking like Michael Jackson’s face with Pee Wee’s hair, but I was wrong.)

I really wish I had better pictures of the rest of this process, but I was caught up in crafting. Bear with me – it’s pretty easy.

Remove the backing from your stencil and place it down on your material. The contact paper is kind of like a post-it. If you don’t get it right the first time, remove it and try again. Once your stencil is in place, you can start painting over it.

Because my material was cotton, I dabbed the acrylic paint on in layers with a sponge brush. This also helped the paint lines stay clean.

Remove the contact paper stencil when the paint is still slightly wet. Allow the design to dry completely.

Once dry, turn the material inside out and iron with a dry iron to help the paint set. Acrylic paint won’t last forever, but you might be able to use fabric paint as well if you want something that will last with many washings.

Voila! Your very own Pee Wee!

If Pee Wee’s not your thing, there are plenty of other stencils out there on the interwebs. Here are a few places you can get started with:

• Spraypaintstencils.com
• MarthaStewart.com
• Fashionfrog.com
• Stencillease.com
• Google image search

And if you’re feeling really creative, you can make a stencil from a photo. Here’s how to do it without a computer, and here’s how to make one in photoshop. And, if you’re really getting into this whole stenciling thing, here’s how to do a 2-layer one in photoshop.

Craft on!

(Thanks to Brooke’s mom for being so darn crafty. If it wasn’t for her, we’d never have thought of using contact paper for stencils! )

This post got love from:

• Whip Up
• Geek Crafts
• And Pee Wee himself!