Colorful Hot Glue Gun Stencil Painting DIY

Hello friends! I’m trying out an idea I’ve had lingering in my brain- a glue gun stencil! It is such a simple concept and so cool to make and use 🙂

Continuing on my rainbow series- First came this Brush Stroke Painting, then I tried Painting with a spoon, and today I pulled out my handy glue gun!

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SUPPLIES YOU’LL NEED:

A hot glue gun: I’m using a basic small glue gun I got at a dollar store years ago, and it works just fine. There are also nice cordless glue guns available these days!
A Blank Canvas– In today’s tutorial I am using an 9 by 12 inch canvas.
Paints: I’m using Deco Art Americana paints here in rainbow colors- well modern rainbow colors because I add in a pink as well
Paint brush: I used a flat 2 inch paint brush like this one
Non Stick Scissors– you’ll need these to trim hot glue hairs or threads
Parchment paper- to work on. We will create our stencil on it and peel it off. Basically, any kind of non stick surface will work here. You can also use a glue gun pad like this one.
Sealer- optional, but you can finish off your canvas with a layer of this water-based sealer or any other you have on hand.

Glue Gun Stencil Tutorial

Step by step tutorial on how to make a glue gun stencil!

1. Tear a piece of parchment paper larger than your canvas

The parchment paper will allow us to make the stencil and peel it off easily when done. Plug in your glue gun for a few minutes before even starting- this will get the glue flowing evenly and nicely. Keep lots of glue refills on hand.

2. Start at the top corner and begin drawing wonky circles

Start at the top left corner if you are right-handed- this way you will have space to rest your wrist as you draw the circles.
Some circles will be thicker than the others. I found that it didn’t really affect the stencil at all.
Make sure you don’t have any area super thin. Go over that area if needed and make it stronger. A weak link will break the stencil

3. Continuing adding more and more circles to grow the stencil

Try to control the amount of pressure you apply to squirt the glue out- a steady hand will give an even output. Vary the sizes of the circles- some big some small. BUT always make sure that the new circle you make is touching the previous circle somewhere
Draw your circles to be a tad larger than the canvas you are using.

4. Cut and trim off the hot glue “hairs” that appear

Using a pair of sharp scissors carefully trim out those pesky hot glue hairs that will get created between circles. This will just take a few minutes but will polish up the stencil nicely.

5. Position your stencil onto the canvas and add paint!

I added paints in rainbow order here- and some gesso too.

6. Blend your colors gently with a dry wide flat paint brush

Blend the paints carefully in a rainbow order with a dry paintbrush. Do not dip your paintbrush in the water at any point or it will definitely seep under the stencil.