How to Make a Bullet Journal Stencil in Microsoft Word

Ready to make your own bullet journal stencil using Microsoft Word? Check out this step-by-step tutorial.

In the blog post, I explain how to create bullet journal stencils using Microsoft Word. The tutorial is broken down into simple steps with images.

Use the table of content below to jump to different parts of the blog post:

Table of Contents show

What is a stencil?

A stencil is a long rectangular plastic with carved-out shapes. You can trace the shapes with a pencil or marker.

How to use a stencil?

Place the stencil on top of your bullet journal. Use a pen or pencil to trace over the carved images. Lift the stencil off the planner to see the drawn image. You may use other color pencils to add more details to the image.

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How to Make a Bullet Journal Stencil in Microsoft Word

Ready to create your dream stencil? Let’s do it!

1. Open Microsft Word > click on “layout” tab > click on the “orientation” option > select “landcape”.

2. Now, click on the “design” tab. Save this image on your computer. In the design tab, select “watermark”. This option is going to be found in the top-right.

3. In the pop-up window select the scale to 30 then click ok. The reason we do this is to lower the opacity of the grid image. Print the grid image sing the highest settings for your printer.

The idea behind the grid page is to measure how big or small you want the stencils to be. Place the printed image on your planner. As you can see in the image below, the printed page fits my planner perfectly. Keep in mind the page is in a horizontal position.

A couple of things to think about before we start creating the spreads:

What theme are you planning to use on this spread?
What images o you want to use in the stencil?

Look at the grid paper and picture how big and small some of the images are going to be. Once you have a theme in mind go back to Microsoft Word.

How to use icons in the stencil

Alright, let’s go back to Microsoft Word! In the toolbar, select “insert” > select the “icons”. This will open a window on the right side of the screen.

In the search bar, type a word. In the example below I typed “summer” which brought up all the icons related to summer. Click on each icon, once you are done click on the “insert” option.

To resize the icon, right-click on it > select “wrap text” > select “in front of text”. Now you can move the icon anywhere on the page. Use the white dots in the corner of the icon to resize it.

Go to your bullet journal and use the grid paper to visualize how big or small you want the icons to be.

How to use fonts in the stencil

Another way to add images to your stencil is with fonts. These are known as decorative fonts or font extras. Check out this tutorial to learn how to install fonts on your Mac computer.

My favorite places to buy fonts are Creative Fabrica, Creative Market, and Font Bundles. Creative Fabrica is the best place to buy fonts and graphics. The prices are a steal and the products are the same ones you can find in the Creative Market and Font Bundles.

Once you have the fonts installed on your computer, let’s add them to your stencil.
In Microsoft Word, go to the “insert” tab > click on “text box” > select “draw text box” > use your mouse to draw a square in the screen.
On your keyboard, press the keys “command + space bar”. A pop-up search box will appear, type “font book” and click “enter”.
Click on the font and drag it to the box you drew.

5. Let’s remove the white background from the box. In the toolbar click the drop-down arrow in “shape outline” > select “no outline”. Right next to it, click the drop-down arrow in ” shape outline” > select “no fill”.

6. In the home tab use the font size tool to increase or decrease the size of the font. That’s it, follow steps 1-6 to add fonts to your bullet journal stencil.

How to print the stencil and use it

Make sure all the images are properly resized before printing the stencil. To remove the graph grid, go to the designs tab > click on the watermark tool > select no watermark.

Print using the highest settings on your printer. You can print on regular paper or use cardboard paper. With a black pencil or color pencil trace the back of the paper. I did small circular motions. I highly suggest tracing with the color that you are going to fill in that shape, that way you don’t have to worry about raising the pencil later.

Use your favorite pencils and brushes to bring the images to life! The image below is a quick spread I made using some of the icons and fonts from this tutorial.

I hope this bullet journal stencil tutorial was helpful and interesting. Let me know in the comment section what other tutorial you would like to see in the blog, Check out some of my popular tutorials.

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