Freezer Paper Stencils Tutorial

Deborah from Mini Me Woolies asked me to create a shirt for her soon to be born (now born ) nephew- She was already in the process of making this fabulous sweater featuring Lets Rock buttons from Tessa Ann. Remember my post a few weeks ago about the benefits of artistic collaborations? Here is a great example.  Her brother is the drummer for the band JodyBoss. She created the custom shirt using the bands logo by freezer paper stenciling and shares how its done on her blog Sunflower Stories.

Freezer Paper Stencils Tutorial

I posted awhile back about my friend Sarah at Rum Tum Crafts gifting me with shirts she made with Freezer Paper Stencil designs. I loved the look and easy idea, so I finally took the time to try it out last night.

I bought a couple 100% cotton American Apparel shirts on Amazon.com, picked up some freezer paper at the grocery store and a few fabric paints at WalMart. Shirts & Supplies: $20.

I did a clip art search for images and decided on an elephant profile, since we like elephants in this house. I also pulled a kitty cat image from the Robeez Coloring Pages to match her shoes. I printed the images on regular paper to scale for her shirts, but I read you can run the freezer paper directly thru most printers (print on the matt side.) I just taped the design behind the freezer paper then used an Exacto knife to cut out the image.

I put the freezer paper, shiny side down on the front of the shirt. I put a second piece of freezer paper in between the shirt layers to prevent the paint bleeding through and ironed it all in place with my iron on the cotton setting.



Then I used a brush to paint in the image. I used Polymark flat fabric paints because they came in a big selection of colors and are only 95 cents a bottle.





After the paint dried, about an hour, I pulled the paper off to check it out.




I left them to finish drying overnight, then turned the shirts inside out, backed the image with a dry paper towel, and ironed the shirt to heat set the image. Done and ready to wear!



It was just as fun and easy to do as Sarah said it would be! I'm already thinking of other designs and colors to use to make more. The boys really like them, too, and asked for mom to make them shirts.