Hi Tina – the Press’n Seal is actually the stencil & is stuck down to the board keeping bleed-through from happening around the edges & on those areas in certain letters like the “O” & the “&” symbol where there isn’t any paper. The letters were just cut out of paper, not cardboard, & therefore move & bend at times which would have allowed paint to get into areas I didn’t want it to be. The only reason I didn’t remove them from the board before painting was the tape holding them down was also pulling up the Press’n Seal – so I just left them there to preserve my stencil. But it worked out well having both to make the edges as clean as possible. As for cutting the wood – I’m sure it left a slight indentation but I didn’t notice it once I removed everything from the board. The knife is so thin that any line from cutting isn’t visible. Thanks for asking!!!