Stencil Butter Techniques, Part Two: Watercolor, Salt Resist, and Stamping

Stencil Butter Techniques, Part Two: Watercolor, Salt Resist, and Stamping

This is part two of our two part Stencil Butter series. If you missed part one, we covered care, storage, and three foundational techniques, the palette knife, the scraper, and heat bubbling. Those three are the ones most people try first. These next three are the ones that turned me from someone who liked this product into someone who cannot stop finding new ways to use it.

Watercolor Technique. Add a small amount of water to Stencil Butter and mix until it thins to a watercolor consistency. Apply it with a brush the same way you would traditional watercolor, layering color where you want depth and letting it stay thin where you want it to fade. Because the pigment in Stencil Butter is so strong, a little goes a long way here. Start thinner than you think you need, you can always add more.

This is the technique I hand to anyone who feels intimidated by Stencil Butter for the first time. It feels familiar, almost like painting with watered down acrylic, but then the shimmer shows up and suddenly it does not feel familiar at all anymore. There is a small thrill in that moment every single time.

Salt Resist Technique. Water down Stencil Butter on a palette, thinning it until it reaches a consistency a little thinner than chocolate syrup. That is the sweet spot, thick enough to hold onto the pigment, but thin enough for the salt to actually disperse through the water. Brush it onto your paper, then sprinkle coarse salt over the top before it dries. As the Stencil Butter dries, the salt pulls moisture and pigment away from itself, leaving behind small starburst patterns once you brush the salt off. This works best on watercolor paper or another surface that can handle the moisture without warping. Let the piece dry completely before brushing the salt away, rushing this step blurs the effect instead of sharpening it.

This is the one I genuinely love watching happen. There is something almost hypnotic about the colors shifting and pulling apart as the salt does its work, you can watch it happening in real time if you catch it at the right moment. Every batch of salt pulls slightly differently depending on humidity and how much product you applied, so no two results ever come out the same, and I have made peace with that. It is less a technique you control and more one you get to watch unfold.

Stamping with Stencil Butter. Apply Stencil Butter to your stamp with a brayer, rolling it across the surface for a smooth, even coat. I tried a brush first, and it was a mess, streaky, uneven, nothing like a clean stamped image. The brayer was pure trial and error, born out of frustration more than strategy, but the second I rolled it on, I knew I had found the way to do this.

This also works on a BetterPress plate, and here the application flips entirely. Because a BetterPress plate has grooves, a brush actually works better than a brayer, the opposite of what you would expect after the stamp experience. The trick is not overloading the sides of the raised image, excess product sitting in those grooves is what turns a crisp impression into a muddy one. Apply a thin layer directly to the raised image, keep the grooves clean, then run it through your BetterPress as usual. The first time I tried this, I fully expected the pigment to flatten out under all that pressure. It did not. The color came through just as vibrant as it went in, and I remember staring at that first plate like it had done something I had not given it permission to do.

If I am honest, this is the technique that tests my patience the most, not the prep, the pressure. How hard you press the brayer when transferring the Stencil Butter can make or break the image transfer, too light and you lose detail, too heavy and you risk muddying the very crispness you are after. It took me more tries than I would like to admit to find that sweet spot, and I still adjust it project to project.

Here is where it gets fun. The brayer method is not limited to stamps. Roll Stencil Butter onto bubble wrap the same way, then stamp it directly onto your project, or press paper onto the bubble wrap to transfer the texture. The bubbles pick up product unevenly in a way that gives you an organic, dotted texture no smooth stamp could ever produce.

Pro tip: Across all of these, on a stamp, a plate, or bubble wrap, too much Stencil Butter is the mistake that trips people up most. On a stamp, that shows up as an uneven brayer pass. On a plate, it shows up as excess product left in the grooves. Either way, you end up with something soft and muddy instead of something crisp. Less product, applied cleanly, wins every time.

Do Not Be Afraid to Experiment. Every technique in this series started the exact same way, curiosity, and a complete lack of guarantee that it would work. Nobody handed me a manual that said try this on a BetterPress plate or roll it onto bubble wrap. I just wondered what would happen, and then I found out.

That is the mindset I want you to borrow. If something has texture and enough surface to hold product, it is worth trying. I have not tried everything, not even close. A leaf, for instance, has enough natural texture and grooves that I would bet you could transfer Stencil Butter from it onto paper the same way bubble wrap does. I have not gotten around to testing that one yet myself, and honestly, that bothers me a little. It is on my list. If you try it before I do, I want to know how it went.

That is the thing about this product after all these years. I keep thinking I have found everything it can do, and then something like a leaf crosses my mind, and I am right back to being the person standing in that aisle, curious all over again.

If you have not grabbed the free quick reference yet, it covers all six of these techniques in one place, the three from part one and the three here. Between the two posts, you now have everything in it explained in full.

I would love to see what you make with these. Tag us in your projects, we always love seeing where people take a technique next.

Happy Experimenting!

Stencil Butter FAQ's

Q: Can I use any Stencil Butter color for the watercolor technique?
A: Yes, though lighter and more translucent colors tend to build the softest washes. Darker or more opaque colors will still thin with water, but they hold more pigment even when diluted.

Q: What kind of salt works best for salt resist?
A: Coarse salt, like kosher or sea salt, works better than fine table salt. The larger grains pull more moisture and create a more visible starburst pattern.

Q: Should I use a brush or a brayer to apply Stencil Butter for stamping?
A: It depends on the surface. Use a brayer for a flat stamp, since a brush does not give enough control for an even coat. Use a brush for a BetterPress plate, since the grooves make a brayer unnecessary, just be careful not to leave excess product on the sides of the raised image.

Q: Can I combine these techniques with the ones from part one?
A: Yes. A palette knife background from part one paired with a salt resist accent, or a stamped BetterPress image over a watercolor background, both work well together. These techniques are meant to build on each other.