MULTIPLES MONDAY: Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

Welcome to MULTIPLES MONDAY, the CRAFTASTIC edition!  I wish I could take credit for this amazing tutorial but all of the kudos go to the uber talented Megan of MMMboppin'.  I found her blog after Lorie from the fabulous Be Different... Act Normal linked to one of my posts and Megan posted a comment in response.  She's a fellow-MoM so I automatically identified with her but once I saw her header....

I knew we were kindred spirits.  Any woman who quotes Hanson as words to love by is a friend of mine!

But enough about my bad taste in pop music.  Today's post is about some adorable TW-IN freezer stencil t-shirts Megan made.  You read that right - she made them!

And she tackled some TW-IN onesies too!

I know you want to make a set of your very own.  You're in luck because Megan's allowing me to feature her terrific Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial here on AFOMFT!  And don't stop reading if you don't have twins.  You can make something fun for your little one - or yourself - too.  Let's get started!

Here's what you're going to need:

Freezer paper - you can buy this at the grocery store - it's like Waxed paper that's waxy only on one side

T-shirt or onesie

Exact-o knife 

Fabric paint

Sponge brush

A piece of cardboard

Something to cut on - a magazine will work

A design - For this onesie, Megan printed out an "S" for a friend's soon-to-arrive baby Susan.  You can find people's templates online, but she generally plays around with the fonts on her computer and gets free fonts at www.dafont.com. She also likes to use clip-art animal silhouettes.

And once you've got all the goodies handy, you're ready for the how-to:

Step #1:  Cut a piece of freezer paper and tape it on top of your image. Place it so that the tape won't be on your image (ironing tape will make a sticky mess on your iron, so place the tape so you can cut or tear it off and not ruin your stencil later).

Step #2: Begin cutting with your exact-o knife. The black parts are going to be the painted areas so cut away the black and keep all of the pieces that are white. When cutting the stencil, start by cutting away the pieces inside and working her way out. Throw away the black pieces that you won't need and hang onto the white parts that you will need as parts for your stencil later. Like this:

Step #3: Once you're done cutting your stencil, prepare to iron it to your shirt. The waxy (it looks shiny) side of the paper needs to face the shirt when you begin ironing (keep that in mind when you are cutting your stencil!).  Megan secures the outline part of the stencil on the shirt first (she suggests looking at a copy of your design to help you figure out how it all needs to look).

Step #4: Iron the inside parts of the stencil in place, so that the design looks the same as the one you started with (remember the parts that are black on your picture are the parts that will be painted).

Step #5: Slide a piece of cardboard into the shirt to keep the paint from going through and then use your sponge brush to paint the shirt with fabric paint. Make sure you paint it pretty thick to cover the stencil well. Let the paint dry for at least 10-15 minutes.

Step #6: After 10-15 minutes, peel off the stencil. If the paint is still wet, use caution so you don't smudge or smear it. First, grab a corner of the freezer paper and pull.  The outline stencil should peel right off the shirt. 

To get the stencil pieces in the middle of the shirt that you're painted over, grab a pair of tweezers and pinch a piece of the inside stencil with them and pull. Works like a charm.

Step #7: Take a step back and admire how dang cute your shirt turned out and imagine how adorable your favorite baby will look wearing it! Ta Da!

Want to get a little fancier?  Try using a Cricut machine to cut out your stencils like Megan did for the stars above.

For more great ideas and a daily dose of humor, be sure to visit Mmmboppin'.  Megan's blog is as catchy as the Hanson song it's named after, but a whole lot less embarrassing for me to admit to liking!

If you try this project or have a CRAFTASTIC project of your own, we want to hear about it!  Send us an e-mail along with some pictures so we can feature your handwork here on AFOMFT. 

Images: Mmmboppin'