Positive & Negative Space Paper Collage Stencil


In this video we begin by creating the design for our stencil. When creating our design, we ensure that we use simple and bold shapes. We draw our design on to black paper and then use a cutting mat and scalpel knife to carefully out out our imagery.

Once our stencil has been cut we create the negative space background which our stencil will be layered over. To do this we use hand made paper strips and glue them down on to another piece of paper. There are many ways in which this can be created such as laying out the paper in different ways or creating your own handmade paper.

Next we paste our cut out piece of black paper over the top of our hand made paper background. This will make the negative space of or black stencil pop with colour as the hand made paper is visible through the cut gaps.

This is a great lesson to teach students about graffiti art without having to use spray paint. Students can practice their safe cutting skills using a safety knife. This can also be completed with scissors if a simple and large shape is being used in the design.



Lesson Plan:

Lesson Plan: Positive & Negative Paper Collage


This range of video lesson plans are designed for teachers and can be shown to students. The videos come with downloadable PDF Lesson Plans that can be incorporated into a teacher’s curriculum plan. These lessons are also adaptable to suit at home learning.