Stencilling Graphics With Electric Paint

With our new Touch Board, you can turn touch into sound on practically any material, but you may also want to make cool graphics that are interactive too!  For a quick way of testing something why not make a stencil? This tutorial shows you how to make crisp clean graphics with Electric Paint and paper or vinyl stencils. 

The Touch Board is currently on Kickstarter, so if you like what you see please support this project, and help make the Touch Board a reality!

Check out the VIDEO

In the video for the Touch Board we produced a variety of graphics with stencil on paper, walls, wood and table cloths, this is how we did it.

Step 1: Components

1 x Touch Board (currently on Kickstarter)
Vynil Stencil or Paper Stencil
Electric Paint, in a jar or a pen
Paint Brushes
Pencil
Masking tape

Step 2: Using Paper Stencils

An easy way to make a stencil is out of paper. You can print out your design and cut it out, or draw it and cut it out.  You can also buy stencil pack form art shops. 
We happen to have a vinyl and paper cutter from craft-robo which make our lives much easier for making more complicated graphics but paper and some scissors can work great too. 

Tape down your stencil to make sure it doesn't slip about while your painting. Squeeze out some Electric Paint. Using a brush spread and dab the paint around the stencil. Pull the stencil off the paper carefully 

Step 3: Using a Vinyl Stencil

Another good way of making a stencil is to use vinyl, this can give you crisper edges and more detail, as the whole sheet sticks down it's great for doing text.  You can cut a sheet of vinyl with a craft knife or have a sign making company cut it for you. Again we use our craft-robo for this. 

Lay down the stencil and mark the corners with a pencil. Stick masking tape over the top of the vinyl, to ensure when you peel it off the backing sheet it all stays together. Next peel the vinyl off the backing sheet.  Fluff the sticky side to make it a little less sticky so you can peel it off the paper after painting without damage it. You can do this by sticking it to you clothes a few times. Once it's a little less sticky, stick it down to your paper, lining up the corners with you pencil markings. Then peel off the masking tape to reveal the paper beneath. 

Step 4: Paint and Peel Off the Vinyl.

Squeeze a blob of Electric Paint into the area you want to paint. Spread and dab the paint around the stencil using a brush. Once it has dried peel off the vinyl carefully making sure not to damage the paper. It should all come away to reveal your graphics. 

Step 5: Connect Your Touch Board

Now your graphics are ready for you to connect your Touch Board to.
For ideas on how to connect the Touch Board to different materials, we'll have another update and tutorial coming soon. 
In the mean time please check out our Kickstarter campaign and please spread the word.