Running With Scissors: Freezer Paper

Freezer Paper Stencil Painting

1:26 PM

Here's a little tutorial I guess on using freezer paper to make an inexpensive silk screen type image with fabric paint. These were on onesies for a friend's baby shower.

WHAT YOU NEED:

-freezer paper

-sketch/ clip art of your shape

-fabric object to paint on

-fabric paint

-scissors or exacto knife, iron, paintbrush

**I found my fabric paint at Jo-Ann's craft store. Michaels near me had less selection, Roberts Craft only had tubes and spray fabric paint. I used Jaquard brand and it was $3.99 for a 2.25 oz jar.

1. Trace your shape on the paper side of the freezer paper.

The freezer paper has a shiny plastic side and a paper side. Make sure the shiny side is down when you trace your shape. I sketched a monster and an owl.

My mom said she liked the round chubby owl better, so maybe that would have been better.

NOTE: Because you are using the paper to make the stencil, you are creating the negative space, so I actually ended up retracing the eyes/beak of the owl and eyes/mouth of the monster on the edge and cutting them out separately. Hopefully the next steps will make more sense.

2. Cut out your shape to make the stencil. Cut out any additional features within the shape.

So here you can see I had to cut the eyes and mouth/beak to iron on in the middle of the space. For the monster eyes, I just used a hole punch to make a perfect tiny circle.

3. Iron on the outside shape to your fabric object. Once in place, position your other features and iron them on.

Make sure you are using a dry iron (no steam), obviously with the shiny/ plastic side down. The hot iron melts the plastic onto the fabric. Make sure it is really secure along the edges so paint can seep under the stencil. After the body was on, I placed the faces where I thought they should be and pressed the iron down all at once.

4. Paint the fabric.

You may need more coats depending on the color of your fabric and paint. I did two coats and I waited about 1 1/2 hours between coats, but it probably depends on the brand of paint you use.

5. Peel off the freezer paper. Seal the paint.

To seal the paint so you can wash it without it fading, iron on the reverse side with the highest temperature the fabric can handle. If it is hard to iron on the back (like fitting the iron inside the onesie) you could also put a cloth on top and iron it that way, as long as it gets high temperature, dry, indirect heat.

To finish up my little guys, I used embroidery thread to make the pupils. I made some legs and stitched in the beak with orange for the owl to finish it off.

Pretty easy and quick. It would be cute on a backpack, purse or tote or something too other than clothes.

And if this seems confusing, here are some other tutorials on how to do this that might be more helpful:

Made by Dana

craftzine.com

Panjokids