Complete Stencil Tutorial Using a Free Program

A tutorial on making a stencil with an open source program called the GIMP.

I looked on all the Instructs tagged with stencil, and not one gives a step by step for making a stencil in my favorite open source photo program The GIMP.

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Step 1: Materials and GIMP

-What You Need-
-printer
-craft knife
-The GIMP
-surface to cut on (self healing mat)
-spray mount (optional)
-spray paint

GIMP is an open source raster based graphics editor. It was designed to replace Photoshop.
You can get it here. gimp.org

Install it, open it up, and familarize yourself with the interface for a bit. Done? Good. Isn't open source great? Didn't cost a dime!

elementrider says: Sep 18, 2011. 12:44 PM

how did you blow up the image?

HuntingWabbits says: Jul 22, 2011. 6:22 PM

Threshold doesn't work :/ My image comes out pixelated

skyhawkes says: Jun 20, 2011. 4:30 PM

My God man!! This is a giant help and I think I love you... just sayin'... and thank you so much for using GIMP. I fell in love with it like 2 years ago but I never knew I could make a stencil with it. That was stupid easy.

JoshuaTerrell (author) in reply to skyhawkesJun 21, 2011. 6:17 AM

No problem. :)

ilpug says: Jun 2, 2011. 9:52 PM

Nicely done. i will check out the GIMP. Can it do something that a high-levcel Photoshop program cant? cuz i have one and it works fine.

BkrevWlevqe says: May 8, 2011. 1:56 AM

Thanks a LOT for this i'ble man!

!revenge! says: Dec 23, 2010. 6:13 AM

hi i have a question about the spray painting itself,
i made a stencil a while ago and i wanted to test it before spraying it to my old guitar. but this is what happened: after testing the stencil, the paint caused the paper to curl up.
do you have any idea how i can prevent this the next time i do this?

greets,

Jelle
ps.
my English may be not very good because i am from the Netherlands and i am 14 years old.

CerealKiller says: Aug 8, 2008. 5:28 PM

Here's Mine: Just can figure out how to print it.

DavidKaine in reply to CerealKillerDec 10, 2010. 10:58 AM

Nice. The other side of the helmet (if this is the one from Full Metal Jacket) would have made for a nice ironic stencil, too.

zs in reply to CerealKillerApr 13, 2010. 4:55 PM

ctrl +p

rasta_bhoy in reply to CerealKillerAug 18, 2008. 7:54 PM

I don't even print mine. I just use my laptop's LCD screen and I would tape the bond paper on it and just trace on it. That's if you have access to an LCD screen. You also skip the outline and printing part too.

zatla in reply to rasta_bhoyAug 3, 2009. 11:05 PM

Haha I tend to do the same, I also use a piece of thin transparent plastic in between the paper and the screen. (A4 fits very well on 15,4") Bless!

mhkabir in reply to zatlaAug 28, 2009. 6:32 AM

Don't pixels get stuck on the screen?

theRIAA says: Dec 24, 2006. 5:34 PM

nice! if you are doing a face or something tricky you may want to try out changing the hue or color of the image to greater tune in details when its in B&W (adjustment layers in PS is the only way i know how to do this)

such as:

http://dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=43

(before stencilizing it)

92033 in reply to theRIAAJun 8, 2010. 6:33 AM

3-1/2 Years Later :-) (just discovered this)...THANKS For Posting the URL. GREAT STUFF.

Russian sniper says: Feb 22, 2010. 11:01 AM

Heres mine!!!!

Charles IV says: Jan 17, 2010. 9:19 AM

Here's mine:

PKTraceur says: Feb 26, 2009. 5:49 PM

Anyone Guess how long? I did this with ONE very sharp pocket knife, cutting it on top of about 20 more papers. Nearly 2 HOURS. The result was kickin' though!

PKTraceur in reply to PKTraceurFeb 26, 2009. 5:50 PM

-RoAr

Parkour Shirt Stencil.xcf(474x568) 48 KB

PKTraceur in reply to PKTraceurFeb 26, 2009. 5:52 PM

-Roar

Parkour Shirt Stencil.xcf(474x568) 48 KB

PKTraceur in reply to PKTraceurFeb 26, 2009. 5:52 PM

Grr....

PKTraceur in reply to PKTraceurFeb 26, 2009. 5:55 PM

Here is what it's based off of...

volquete in reply to PKTraceurSep 6, 2009. 7:17 PM

w00t! parkour rox!

bvulgarin says: Jul 22, 2009. 7:23 AM

Very useful, thanks!

soongone says: May 19, 2009. 7:39 AM

Thanks it was easy to understand

slimguy379 says: Aug 6, 2008. 1:34 PM

hello great job... this isn't Really about this instructable but though you could help... I currently have a screen printing business and I'm trying to make a 3 - 6 color shirt.. is there a way to separate each and every color? (using gimp, word, or publisher?) the response would be greatly appreciated...

Maxinama in reply to slimguy379May 4, 2009. 11:13 AM

It's really easy to do just go image>mode>indexed, select the amount of colors (white backround will count as color) you want and click convert.

stevedem in reply to slimguy379Dec 12, 2008. 1:05 PM

yeah, you can select each color and separate each one as it's own layer.

robbs says: May 1, 2009. 12:53 AM

I tried to change the color of my stencil using "select by color" but it remained black. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for the input.

ericgay says: Mar 21, 2009. 9:06 PM

NICE!

fwjs28 says: Feb 26, 2009. 4:56 PM

woot!

PKTraceur says: Feb 26, 2009. 4:39 PM

If it's any help, and your colours are inverted, try colours

runkrocker says: Mar 28, 2008. 1:17 PM

cool instructable! vey vey helpful. i dont fully know all of what photoshop and gimp can do and this was awesome. i made an invader zim stencil. yay!!!