Freezer Paper Stencils

Here is a great technique that is floating around blogs right now. When I saw it, I knew I needed to try it out. Since I think it is so fun I decided to make my own little tutorial.

1. First you must gather your supplies. You need freezer paper. I found mine at the grocery store. I looked at Target and couldn't find it there. So try the grocery store first.You also need fabric paint. You can find this at a craft store (Micheal's, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby). Make sure you have a few sponge brushes too. They are super cheap. I could only find black paint in velveteen. I had no idea what that meant but after using it, it is so cool. After it dries and you iron the paint to set it, it kind of puffs up a little bit and almost turns fuzzy. It's hard to explain but super cool to try. I think I actually like it better than the matte.

2. Next you need to have a pattern to trace. I've printed right onto the freezer paper before but for this rocket ship, the paper got all jammed so I just printed on regular paper and then traced it on to the freezer paper.
3. Use an exacto knife to carefully cut out your design. Make sure you pay attention to what will be painted and what will stay the color of the shirt. You need to save all the inside pieces.
4. Position your design onto your shirt. Iron it on. The wax side of the paper goes down.
4. Then you put in the little details and iron those on. (A little trick I used for the tiny circles was I used a little hole punch.)
5. After your whole design is ironed on, put a piece of cardboard in between the layers and get ready to paint.
6. Use your fabric paint to paint inside your design. Make sure you don't go outside the freezer paper. I've made that mistake too many times. Also try to do this when you don't have a 2 1/2 year old "helping":) He was really excited about his rocket ship.

Since I was doing white on black, this required a lot of coats. I think I did 4 coats. I let it dry at least to the touch in between coats of paint.
7. This is the part I'm not sure about. One tutorial said to take your stencil off while the paint was wet still and another said to let it dry over night. I'm not sure which but when I took mine off when wet, it seemed to smear it some. I usually let it dry to the touch before taking it off.
8. After you get the main part of your stencil off, you have to get the details out.
9. Use tweezers to get all the little pieces off. Be careful to just grab the paper.

10. Once your paint is totally dry, put a scrap piece of fabric over it and iron to set the paint.
11. Put your shirt on and admire your good job. It's so exciting to see a finished project. Here are a few more I've done:Got Milk? for my chubby little baby with her cow legs.
I had my nieces help paint their initials on shirts. I was totally not thinking and didn't make one for their little sister. So I just made one up and am getting ready to send it in the mail to her. Then I can have a picture with all three of them wearing their initial shirts. Cute girls!