Blew $30 on a fancy stencil set for my monthly spread

I bought this 20-piece stencil kit off Etsy thinking it would make my headers look clean and pro, but all the circles came out wonky and the lines bled like crazy with my Micron pens. Ended up trashing the whole thing and freehanding it anyway, which took half the time. Anyone else find that those pricey bujo accessories are just a trap?

3 comments

3 Comments

henderson.oscar23d ago

Those stencils always looked so promising in the shop photos but then the ink just bleeds right under the edge... did you try holding the stencil down with something heavy or was it just sliding around on the page the whole time? I'm curious if the issue was the stencil itself being cheap plastic or if it was more about how the pen angle hit it weird. Because I've got a few stencils that work fine if I hold them at a strict 90 degree angle but anything else and the lines just blur.

the_eric23d ago

90% is about the angle, not the stencil material.

joel_butler11d ago

Agree completely, I've had the exact same issue with angle being way more important than the stencil itself.