Saturday, June 13, 2009

Freezer Paper Stenciling




I had an exciting day today experimenting with freezer-paper stenciling. No longer content with boring monochromatic shirts, I decided it was time to add a little bit of 'funk' to my wardrobe. This, I decided, was to come in the form of groovy, one-off t-shirts!


 I got the idea to use freezer paper for stenciling after stumbling across The Artful Parent. Then I scanned Etsy for some inspiration and came across the following groovy shops - singlestonestudio, oneupdesigns and byrdiekids. These shops all sell really cool wall art, that, lucky for me, also make great designs for my stencils.

I decided to begin my journey by using my children's PJs - that way if things turned ugly it wouldn't really matter. But, happily, ecstatically,  all went well. The results were beyond my greatest expectations. Clean, crisp edges! I could hardly take the smile off my face as I gazed at them adoringly.

That said, the edge of the bird print is not as crisp as the others. It needed 3 coats to get full coverage and my lack of patience got the better of me. The instructions on the bottle said to wait 24 hours - I gave it 15 minutes in the sun!

I love that this form of printing is cheap, quick, effective and a mess-free technique!  I think I have caught the t-shirt printing bug! Now to start work on my shirts!

A FEW TOP TIPS:
1. Apply the paint in 2 or more thin layers rather than one thick layer.
2. Apply the paint by placing a blob of paint across the top of your design and scraping it down the design using a credit card. This way you get a smooth, even finish.
3. I tracked down a medium (Jo Sonja's Textile Medium) I could mix into standard acrylic paint that turned it into fabric paint. This was an exciting find as I already had plenty of good quality acrylic and didn't really want to buy a whole range of fabric paint.
4. Cut the freezer paper down to A4 size and run it through your printer if you're getting an image off the internet.



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