Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

I know that there are many, many tutorials out there for this type of thing, most of which better written and better photographed. But my dear sister-in-law Linda seemed to not believe them. I want to show her that not only can I do them without making a mess, but so can her brother!

Step 1: Find an image you like. Trace it onto freezer paper. As long as you put the waxy side down when tracing, there is no need to reverse the image. (And since you can only trace onto the non-waxy side, this is a no-brainer.) You can do a Google images search and narrow the search by black and white, or even outline. Freezer paper should be findable in most grocery stores; if not there, check your mother-in-law's house (that's where I get mine, but not because I can't find it in stores, only because I'm lazy).

Step 2: Cut out the pieces that you want to be painted onto the shirt. I used an X-acto knife and it was easy, tho maybe a bit time-consuming. Make sure you put something underneath your knife since it will cut your kitchen table! (Thankfully I didn't learn this the hard way.) Also, if you ever want to use the cut-outs and do a negative-style job (see here for an example), then make sure you only cut on your lines.


Step 3: Iron the stencil onto the shirt. Do this by putting the waxy-side on the shirt, covering with a pressing cloth, and then ironing. I do mine with the cotton setting and spend about 30 seconds pressing. And then because I am a freak and I get nervous, I take off the pressing cloth and just iron directly onto the freezer paper! Whoa--living on the edge. But not for too long.

Step 3 1/2: Insert some cardboard between the layers of shirt. If not, paint might bleed in the next step. I found cereal boxes work great.

Step 4: Paint! I bought my fabric paints at Michael's and they were about $1.75. Make sure they say "fabric paint." (At my store, these paints were by the t-shirts, not with the regular acrylic paints.) And feel free to paint onto the freezer paper. If you want to do two coats, read the bottle's instructions on how long before it's dry and ready for that second coat.

See how messy we were! This is about as messy as this project gets. (See the name stencils in the background?)


Step 5: After drying (again, look at the bottle for an estimate on time), peel off the stencil. It should come off fairly easily.


Voila! Isn't it great?! The lines are so sharp and stay that way after washing!


Step 6: If your design requires more than one color, wait until the first color is dry before applying the next stencil. But don't worry: the stencil will iron on top of the paint, no problem. It will then peel off fine too, without taking paint 1 with it. (You didn't think we were making shirts that encourage puking, did you?!) And then repeat the whole process.


Your final project will be, no doubt, equally as great as this! (Seriously, how great is this shirt for running a race in which we run two miles, eat a dozen donuts, and then run the two miles back?! It's perfect!)