Easter is a great opportunity to get creative and stencils make it easy and fun to decorate eggs and cards. The internet provides access to hundreds of stencils but not all of them are free. Here are some links to sites where Easter stencils are available to download and print at no cost.
Stencils for Easter Eggs
The Hershey’s website has a dedicated Easter section. This includes three sheets of egg stencils, which are marked easy, intermediate and advanced, according to the intricacy of the designs.
The easy sheet is mostly made up of simple shapes, such as triangles, circles and squares in different sizes; the intermediate sheet has more detailed designs such as stars and chicks; while the advanced sheets includes flowers, butterflies, bunny rabbits and the words ‘Happy Easter’. Each sheet can be downloaded and printed individually.
The Hewlett Packard website contains details of a tissue paper stencil project. This is slightly different from other stencil projects, because the printed designs are cut out of the tissue paper and glued to the surface of the egg. A slightly more advanced project, but if the egg pictured on the website is anything to go by, worth the challenge.
The project can be downloaded as a two-page PDF. The first page provides a detailed outline of the materials needed and step-by-step instructions. On the second page are the stencils themselves, which include simple images of circles, spirals, stars, hearts and tulips.
While the stencils on the two sites above are intended to be used on Easter eggs, the repetitive designs mean they could also be used to create the border of a card.
Stencils for Easter Cards
The Painting guide on About.com has a gallery of 14 stencils to choose from. The majority of the designs feature eggs and bunny rabbits, although there is also one of a sheep and a lamb. The outlines are clear and simple, which make them easy to cut out. The format is also quite large, making them ideal for cards.
Clicking on an image opens it at full size in a new window. The easiest thing to do is print the image directly off the website, but it can also be downloaded and saved on a computer.
Unique Easter Decorations
Stencils are an easy way to create colorful, unique Easter decorations and cards. In addition, once the stencils have been cut out, they can be used over and over again in different combinations. Please bear in mind, however, that young children may need assistance with the cutting-out part, and should always be supervised when there are sharp objects around.
Cecily Layzell - Cecily Layzell is a food and travel writer and founder of restaurant review site www.eat-amsterdam.com.
