I loved doing the freezer paper stenciling so much that I decided to try some more techniques for creating the stencil images. The best source I have for making really cute images of various sizes is my Cricut. Once I started looking at all of the designs I have available on my various cartridges, I was giddy with excitement over everything I could now stencil!

First, I cut my freezer paper down to the 6″x12″ size required by my machine. Then, I picked a cute house off of my Cricut Joys of Season cartridge. Once I had my cut image, I wanted that to be the same color as the material so I cute a circle slightly bigger than the house our of another sheet of freezer paper. Then, I placed the house inside of the circle and ironed the whole thing down (Fig.1). I used some textile medium mixed with acrylic paint to transfer the stencil to my canvas piece (Fig.2). I am thrilled with the cute house result and I plan to add my new neighbors’ name and year their house will be finished to the bottom to present it as a housewarming gift (Fig.3).

With that success, I had to press on and try something else. There are cut-outs available on that same cartridge for the twelve days of Christmas. How cute would it be to have a set of napkins with a day on each one? I practiced the image on a napkin that I don’t really care about so that I could decide on the size and layout that I wanted. I decided to go with a large layout and I like the finished result on my practice napkin (Fig.4). I will use this one as a tea towel in my kitchen and then I will use a nicer set of napkins to use on my dining table for the holidays.