One bold silhouette to a sheet, scaled up until it meets an edge of the printable area. Six subjects: a star, a tree, a snowflake, a bauble, a reindeer and a sleigh seen from the side. Each is a single closed outline with nothing inside it, because the piece you keep is the shape itself.
How a snow stencil is actually used
Cut the shape out, tape it to the inside of the glass, spray fake snow over it and lift it off. What is left on the window is the clean shape with frosting round it, so what you need from the printer is the silhouette and not a frame with a hole in it.
That is why nothing is drawn inside the outline and why there is no island anywhere in any of the six. The reindeer's legs open downwards as notches in the edge rather than as holes in the middle, and the sleigh's body sits straight on the runner with no window between them, so each animal and each sleigh comes away as one piece.
How big each subject prints
Every subject is 180mm wide on A4, which is the full printable width. The height is whatever the shape is: the star 171mm, the snowflake 208mm, the bauble 215mm, the tree 242mm and the reindeer 251mm, which is the tallest of the six.
The sleigh is the exception. It is a wide, low shape, a scrolled front over a long runner with a tall back to the seat, so filling the width leaves it only 110mm tall with a band of empty paper above and below. That is the shape, not a layout fault, but it is worth knowing before you print it expecting a full page.
Outline or solid, and why the fill is grey
Outline draws the cut line and nothing else, and it is the setting to use if an adult with a craft knife is doing the cutting. Solid fills the shape as well, which makes it obvious at a glance which side of the line you are keeping. That is the setting for a child with scissors.
The fill is a light grey rather than black. A full A4 of solid black costs most of a cartridge and buys nothing, because the paper is being cut out either way.
Paper, tape and the spray
Around 160gsm is the weight to aim for. It holds its shape against the glass without creasing, and card much thicker than that will not sit flat on a pane, so the spray creeps underneath the edge and the outline comes out soft.
Low tack tape or a rolled loop of ordinary tape round the back, on the stencil rather than on the glass edge. Spray in short bursts from a foot away, let it go off for a minute, then lift the stencil off in one movement rather than peeling it.
Questions
- What subjects are in the window stencil set?
- Six, one to a sheet: a star, a Christmas tree, a snowflake, a bauble, a reindeer in profile and a sleigh seen from the side. The Subject control above the sheet switches between them.
- How big do the stencils print?
- All six are 180mm wide on A4. The heights vary with the shape, from 171mm for the star up to 251mm for the reindeer. The sleigh is low and wide, so it is only 110mm tall.
- Why is the solid fill grey rather than black?
- To save toner. The paper is cut out either way, so a full sheet of solid black would empty a cartridge for no benefit. The light grey still makes it obvious which side of the line you keep.
- Can I use them with snow spray on glass?
- Yes, that is what they are drawn for. Tape the cut shape to the inside of the pane, spray in short bursts from about a foot away, let it go off for a minute, then lift the stencil straight off.
- How is this different from the Christmas stencils page?
- That page cuts the subject out of a card frame, so you keep the card around the hole and draw through it. These are the opposite: you keep the silhouette and spray around it.