Freezer Paper Stenciling Tutorial

It's a quick craft with a big "Wow" factor...

It takes only five (cheap!) supplies plus your fabric to come up with something this cute!

You don't need any special talents to make a gift that's especially memorable...

And personal...

It's freezer paper stenciling!! I'm a little in love with this technique, can you tell? I was taught how to do this by my dear friend Rockie at our March Create Craft Club meeting and I've gone wild with it on everything from Mickey Mouse shirts (can you guess where we are going this summer?) to onesies and most recently the monogrammed pillow cases for my friend's bachelorette weekend.

You'll need:

• Regular Acrylic Paint
• Textile Medium (you can find this near the acrylic paint at Michael's)
• Freezer Paper (from the grocery store or Walmart near the tin foil)
• Exacto Knife
• Sponge Brush

To make the monogrammed pillowcases I used my Cricut machine. I put the freezer paper (shiny side down) on the sticky board and it worked beautifully. You don't need a Cricut machine though, you can either free hand a design directly on to the freezer paper (like I did with the Mickey shirt, scottie dog and car designs in the pictures above) or you can print directly on to the freezer paper using your printer. Be sure to print or draw on the non-shiny side of the freezer paper then you can cut out your design with the Exacto knife.

Once your design is cut out, place it on the fabric item you want to print. Cut out another piece of freezer paper that is the same size as your design and place it on the back of the fabric you are working with the shiny side up. (The freezer paper design will adhere to the front of your fabric and the scrap piece of freezer paper on the back will protect from any paint that might seep through. You could also use cardboard, but I found that the freezer paper works best because it doesn't slip.)

Then use a hot iron (just hot, no steam) to press the freezer paper down. The paper will adhere temporarily. If you keep the iron on too long the paper will start to bubble up a little, I wouldn't recommend this.

If you want to make a more detailed design or if you want to make a portion of the design another color, put the freezer paper over the portion you want to add more detail to later. After the first color of paint has dried you can lift off this part of the freezer paper and add the second color (like with the red scottie dog collar above).

Next mix one part acrylic paint with two parts of the textile medium.

Apply this paint to your stencil using the foam brush.

Keep the freezer paper on for 24 hours and allow the paint to dry completely. Once it is dry you can peel off the freezer paper. Finally, iron the design one last time with a hot iron for a few seconds. This will set your design and it's now on there permanently. You may want to turn your design inside out and machine wash in cool water for the first time after using it. Happy Stenciling!!