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Nice spatter. Was was experimenting around with spatter this morning using a tooth brush loaded with paint pulling back across the bristles with a popsicle stick sized bit of wood. Bears further experimenting. bill

That is a perfect way to make long lasting stencils. Thank you for sharing it with us. Let me share the way I make them and by no means am I trying to put down or upstage your way. It is truly awesome:worship:. I buy large diameter heat shrink tubes. The kind used on large electrical wire. The smallest I use is like 1/2" up to 1 1/2". For an example, say I wanted to copy a wiggle wart pattern. I slide the heat shrink over the wart. Heat it very slowly so I don't warp the lure. I use a heat gun for this. When the heat shrink is tightly conformed to the lure, I use an exacto knife and begin to cut out the pattern. Since I use transparent heat shrink, I can see the pattern through the heat shrink and just trace around it with the knife. Then, I cut down the bell and back and I have my two halves. I then put the two halves back on the lure and simply put a piece of masking tape down the belly or back to make a clam shell out of it. Usually, as the bait tapers toward the tail, there will be excess heat shrink. I take a pair of pliers and smash the excess together while it is hot to form a place to hold onto the stencil. The heat shrink forms around the bill and the hook eyes to give you perfect placement every time!

Bassman, I looked everywhere for a craw pattern stencil when I started painting. I don't think anyone makes one. My first trys at making one was not good. It took me about ten trys to get one that looked right to me. The one I use now is made from playing card with an exacto knife just like Bobp said. I like the card because I use it on many differant baits. It works well on flat or rounded baits. I attached a picture of one of mine done with the stencil I made. The stencil its self is not very detailed. The best teacher in the world is trial and error. ..........Oscar

I've never seen any ready-mades for sale and besides, you need one that fits the bait you're painting. My advice is buy some sheets or a roll of stencil (aka frisket) material. I use the kind with a peel-off backing and one roll is a lifetime supply. Then find a craw pattern bait you like and copy the heck out of it They don't have to be too detailed to get a good effect. I draw the pattern, cut it out with an xacto knife and voila. Tip - don't remove the paper backing on the stencil when you use it, just hold it against the bait. Then you can flip it over (after drying the overspray with a hair dryer) and use the same stencil for the other side. That saves a bunch of work making 2 identical stencils AND you can reuse the stencil on future baits.