Freezer Paper T-Shirt Stencil Tutorial

I first saw someone trying this out a few weeks ago and thought it was cool. The more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to try it. Here is a step by step of my first attempt (which turned out pretty good!).



Supplies:

• Plain shirt
• Fabric paint - I used Tulip brand
• Foam paintbrush
• Freezer paper - I've heard Reynolds brand is best and that's what I used
• Iron
• Piece of cardboard

Directions:
1. Cut your desired image from a piece of freezer paper. I used my Cricut for this step and selected a heart design from the Home Decor cartridge.

2. Place the piece of cardboard inside the shirt, where you will want your image to go. This will prevent the paint from bleeding through the shirt and ruining it.

3. Place the freezer paper shiny side down where you would like it to be on the shirt.

4. Iron the freezer paper while on the shirt. This will melt the wax on the shiny side and make it stick to the shirt.

 5. Because I wanted the outline of the heart and not a solid heart, I also pieced the image back together as it was cut so I could also iron the middle parts to the shirt.

6. Remove the parts you would like to be painted and prepare paint and brush.

7. Put a little bit of paint down at a time. I found this better than gobbing on a lot at a time and in the end I think it helped so that not so much paint bled through the shirt.

8. Spread the paint around in an even layer.

9. Let dry and repeat layers of paint as necessary. I ended up doing 3 coats total.

10. Once the paint is completely dry (follow drying directions/recommendations on paint bottle), peel up the freezer paper.

I think it turned out pretty good for my first try at it. I see a lot more shirts in my future with a new makeover. It was overall pretty easy to do and I really think the hardest parts were waiting for it to dry and peeling up some of the freezer paper. It kept wanting to stick and at times I had to use tweezers to help.