It's almost as easy to me to hand solder vs dotting every pad, placing every part (on a necessarily small panel), then messing up and bridging every SSOP. I can only get SSOP right half the time, even with a stencil.
But FWIW, if you want to manually paste, try this before getting super fancy:
1. 3cc syringes. Smaller diameter = more pressure/leverage with a given effort. Like putting the bike into first gear.
2. Plastic tips. The pink ones (I think 20 gauge?) A tapered plastic tip = more flow for a given pressure and less continuation after pressure is ceased.
Take a big bore needle and put it on your standard solder paste syringe. Stick it all the way down into the back of the 3cc syringe. Fill up, avoiding any air bubbles. Easy, peasy. Now take the plunger and a piece of stripped 30 AWG wire. Stick the end of the wire into the back of the syringe as you push the plunger in. This lets out the air. Once seated, remove the wire. Turn the syringe rightside up and squeeze out any air left in the tip.
Tip: Fill up all your 3mm syringes at once, until your main syringe is empty. But put the rubber piece, only, into the back, without the plastic plunger. That makes for more compact and secure storage. (Make sure to use luer lock syringes, and buy the black plastic caps). When you need a new syringe, pull the plastic plunger out of the old one and secure into the new syringe, before removing the black plastic cap.
You can also buy a luer lock-to-luer lock adapter for filling syringes point-to-point, so to speak. I bought one of those. Didn't really pan out. In fact, filling from the back left little to no air and was better.