What am I missing about basic shape stencils?

[wavejumper]

It feels to me that in the past...6 months? There is a growing product trend for basic shape stencils and masks.

Ie a circle in the middle of a stencil with a matching mask. Period.

I don't understand this. I can just die cut/punch this anytime I want with a basic circle set out of scrap paper or left over piece of acrylic sheet packaging....


When I first saw it, I thought well that's odd and really unnecessary (and I am the one that WILL buy that kind of thing at times)...but now I am seeing them in lots of companies....


What am I missing? Is this just a convenience thing or there is really something cool and magical here?

[kazeka]

I'm guessing that these masks and stencils are for people who don't want to die cut a circle to use as a stencil, or don't own a large circle die (or die cut machine). The largest circle die that I own is 4 inches, but before I got this set I could only make a 2 inch circle.

I've been making my own circle stencils (for sun and moon etc) now that I have a whole set of circle dies. Also, I didn't even own a die cut machine for years...so just made do with a small circle punch.

Kaern

[Cook22]

I've always assumed that they're more to use as a mask, for masking/reverse masking techniques, with sponging, or maybe another stencil layed over it. And it is very useful to have both together - I've actually cut a couple of DIY ones from Mylar in the same size as a card front, because I realised quite often I used both pieces, and when it's the same size as the card, it's easy to know I'm centred (which was harder if I used a sheet of copy paper!) But that's just me - as you know, I'm not much of a video person so maybe there is some other use.

[kazeka]

Hmm, hadn't thought about using a stencil layered over the circle...but that would be a great technique. I've only used my homemade circle stencil and mask for ink blended moons or one-layer cards.
Karen

[wavejumper]

Ok thanks. I am not the most imaginative at times so I thought I was missing something right in front of my nose. It is a basic tool and that's it.