Quick Tip When Ironing your Stencils

I don't want you to damage your stencils with your iron. After receiving a message from Judy Klineburger from Clifton Heights, PA, I thought I should emphasize some details regarding ironing stencils to clean off the Ultimate iron-off chalk or to press them flat.

Judy wrote, "When I used my iron on the stencil, it started to shrivel up and wrinkle. Is there a way to fix/flatten it?" I replied that I thought her iron may have been set too high and asked her to send me a picture of the stencil. That's it below. In the email containing the photo, Judy added that her iron has only a 1, 2, and 3 for settings; she had it on three and only touched it for a second. She did not use steam.

This, to me, is alarming and the reason I wanted to touch on this subject today.

I want to make the point that what you see in the picture can happen when the heat is too high. A medium-high heat is what's needed. Once it's ironed at a setting that is too hot, it won't resume its original flat condition, so please use a medium-high setting and keep the iron moving over the stencil. Don't hold it in one place. There could be a variance in what Medium High means, too, so start there, and if you need to increase the heat to see the chalk disappearing, that's fine; increase it slowly.

All was not lost for Judy. I replaced her stencil because she was the catalyst for this vital lesson in ironing a Full-Line Stencil. Now, not only does she know how to prevent this from happening again, but we all do.