How to Make Reusable Stencils with Your Silhouette and a $20 Laminator

If you're looking for a way to make reusable stencils for wood signs - this money saving trick for making stencils you can paint, rinse and repeat is a good one! 

Keep reading for the full game-changing tutorial that requires nothing more than your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait and a $20 Amazon laminator.  

The problem with making multiple signs

Making wood signs as one-offs is totally fine - you can just use regular vinyl or stencil material. But those materials can't be re-used. 

So what do you do if you want to make the same design multiple times? Or what if you're selling signs and need to recreate popular designs over and over?

That's where this trick comes in handy. I'm going to show you how to make reusable stencils that you can cut once, use multiple times, and literally just wipe clean between uses!

What we're going to is use lamination sheets as our stencils. So grab your laminator and warm it up - I'm using this simple and cheap one from Amazon. 

Take a lamination sleeve and without anything inside it, run it through your laminator empty.  

As the sheet is heated and comes out the other side it becomes rigid. This will become our stencil. 

How to Cut Reusable Stencils with Silhouette

Take the clear sheet now and place it on your Silhouette cutting mat just like you would any other material.

Best Silhouette Cut Settings for Reusable Stencil Material 

In Silhouette Studio open up your design. Remember, not all designs are stencil friendly. This farmhouse design however is specifically designed as a stencil. Notice how there are no individual pieces to fall out?  

From the Send panel you want to choose the "Clear Sticker Paper" material setting. That should give you a Blade: 3 Speed: 4 Force: 33 Passes: 2.

These settings work perfectly for cutting through the laminated material, but if you have trouble, increase the blade depth by 1. 

Send the design to cut on your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait and then weed out the areas that you're going to paint.

How to use your reusable stencils

To hold your stencil in place you can spray the back with a spray adhesive.  This allows you to stick it temporarily to your wood piece while you are painting. 

Use a makeup sponge instead of a brush when you're applying the paint so you can blot or dab on the paint rather than brush it. When you use a brush you risk using too much paint and pushing the paint under the edge of the stencil. 

You also want to make sure you don't use too much paint - you want light, even coats. 

When you're done painting, just lift up the stencil and wipe or rinse it off! It's ready to use again immediately.

In this video on painting wood signs, I share more tips on how to get crisp paint lines and avoid paint bleeds. 

The other way to make resusable stencils is to invest in the Ikonart Stencil system.  That option will allow you to make custom, reusable screen print stencils. I love that method too but it's more of an investment up front. 

Need help choosing the right designs for stenciling? Or want step-by-step guidance on advanced Silhouette techniques? Check out Silhouette U for personalized support and exclusive tutorials!

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!