Nanostenciling is an area-selective technique for patterning surfaces in a single step, by depositing material through a shadow mask. In this article, we propose a cost-efficient technique for the fabrication of a cm(2)-scale stencil mask with the help of conventional photolithography and wet anisotropic etching. The mask consists of a freely suspended silicon membrane, with micro- and nanoscale apertures. Well-defined Au and Al patterns were transferred onto Si and SiO2/Si substrates. Issues such as the geometry of the evaporation setup and the surface diffusion of evaporated atoms are discussed. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.