Since October is my favorite month I wanted to try using a printmaking technique. I'm a little rusty, because I haven't attempted any printmaking in almost six years. For some reason I was waiting until I got all the 'appropriate' equipment and space for such a project, but alas I could wait no longer. The stuff I used isn't the best, because I used what was lying around my house. Nonetheless I'm happy with the results.
First I sketched out my stencils on foam, and then I cut them out. Then I glued them down on a (terrible) piece of plastic I had from my printmaking days. For better results I would suggest a nicer piece of plastic, and foam that has adhesive on the back.
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| (this is after printing with the stencil) |
Then I used a piece of glass and rolled out some black printmaking ink with a brayer. My brayer was 8 inches wide, and I found that was too big for this job. It was hard to create even pressure over the brayer, thus making it hard to get an even coat of ink on the foam. After I felt my brayer was properly charged, or evenly coated in ink I rolled it over my foam stencil. This should coat the foam in a nice even layer of black ink, if not you can go back over any spots that may need more ink. if there are any spots of ink on the plastic, be sure to wipe them off with a paper towel before proceeding on to the next step.
Next, carefully place your stencil face down (or ink down) on the paper you wish to print to, and add pressure over the surface area. If this is your first time trying this I suggest testing it out on scrap paper first. You can use your stencil to make multiple prints, just apply more ink. After evenly applying pressure all over the back of your stencil, you can carefully lift it off of your paper.
After that I placed a paper towel over the print so I didn't smudge it, and above it I wrote out 'October' in pastels. I used two different oranges, a yellow, and a brown to add depth to the coloring of the letters. When I was done with the lettering, I covered the moon with orange, and filled in the windows of the haunted house, and traced the outline of the tree. Once that was complete I sprayed it with a clear glossy finish so the pastels didn't smudge. 
Happy DIYing!
