This is a tutorial on how to make a clean stencil on your
Halloween costume.

This was from a lot of trial and error. We tried stencils with straight paper, foam board and cardboard. All of them had their problems. I strongly suggest practicing first. I didn’t take photographs as I did it. I took pictures of materials afterwards. So bare that in mind if something doesn’t make sense.

You will need:

1. Any spray paint really

2. Duct Tape

3. Plastic of Metal surface that duct tape will come off of somewhat easy

4. PlastiDip

5. Painter’s tape

6. Exactoblade

7. Printer (and paper)

Step 1: Step 1: Print and Cut Stencil

You start by printing out a stencil off the internet and cutting it out.

*This is clearly just an example. It's not what I used.*

Step 2: Step 2: Put Duct Tape on Metal or Plastic

Take some duct tape and tape it to a piece of plastic or
metal. I used the side of an old computer case. Feel free to overlap them to make a larger area. Just make the overlap large so when you pull it off it stays together.

Step 3: Step 3: Spraypaint Stencil on Duct Tape

Use the regular spray paint and spray the stencil on top of
the duct tape. This does NOT have to be perfect. It does NOT have to be full either. Better to under spray than over spray. (The photo shows a cutout laying on top but think of it as your sprayed image).

**When I did this I did the entire thing at once. You only see one piece of tape under the “C” here because this was after the fact. But imagine tape under the whole thing, overlapping each other.

Step 4: Step 4: Cut Duct Tape Based on Stencil

Cut the stencil image out of the tape. Peel off tape. And
when you cut this, you don’t have to leave the stencil marks. You may have center pieces that you can take off separately (like the middle of the “O”).

Step 5: Step 5: Prep Item & Spray Plasti Dip

Fold up your cloth or target item so it’s as small as
possible. The idea is you have less to cover up. Take your painters tape and tape up the edges of the duct tape, lay some paper or anything else to cover the rest of the costume/cloth/target up. Just imagine this photo of the jumpsuit covered in white paper and blue tape all over the edges of the stencil.

Spray the target piece with the Plasti Dip. You have to wait long enough for the plastic to dry just a little but not too much because then it solidifies to the duct tape and dries as one piece. The image below shows much of it pulled off already.

**Careful**

The sooner you pull it off the more careful you have to be to not let it touch other parts of the fabric. But like I said, you can't wait too long either. I waited maybe 2 minutes and got a few smudges which I used the blood later as a kind of distraction from my mistakes.

You can use a heat gun or hair drier for a brief minute to just lessen the dry time a bit. I did this but only for a few seconds. You do it too long and it can have the opposite effect in melting it.