meaningful gift: freezer paper printed tee

A little boy we know turned three recently, so I had a go at the bloggy classic/cliche t-shirt printing using freezer paper stencil technique. And it's really easy. Check me out.

Gather the things you will need.

• freezer paper (I bought mine from an online craft store a couple of years ago)
• t-shirt
• paint (I just used acrylic)
• a stencil brush, or a brush with hard, flat bristles
• a cutting implement- some tutes say exacto knife, I don't know what that is. I bought a nifty Friskars scalpel thing, with a swivel blade and a handle you stick your finger in.

1. Create your image. I used photo shop, opening an A4 page, and drawing a custom shape on it. Print the image out. You can print directly onto the paper side of the freezer paper if you want to, but I ran out of ink after I did a test print. You could also just draw your image (derr).

2. Cut out the part of the image that you want to end up seeing on your shirt.

3. Iron your stencil onto the shirt. No steam, relatively hot- I used the cotton setting. Plasticy side down, and remember to remove any bits of sticky tape you used when cutting. Don't forget the little pieces!

4. Paint away! But before you start, make sure you have a piece of paper or fabric inside the shirt to stop any paint going through to the other side. Dab a bit of paint onto the end of your brush, then dab off the excess. Use a light, up-and-down motion to apply the paint through the stencil. Go as heavy or light as you like. Lots of paint creates a nice, clean solid block, a little paint for a more grungy look. I mixed up a grey using my black and white acyclic, but left the mix a bit marbled for a patchier finish.

5. Peel away your stencil. See how nice and clean the edge is? No bleed, because the stencil was stuck down!

6. Let the paint dry, then give it an iron on the reverse side to set the paint. Sweet!

All in all, I was very happy with how this turned out. It is fiddly to have to cut a new stencil every time you want to print something, but I guess that makes it a pretty special gift, no? Will definitely be doing more of these. Oh, and I saw the little guy wearing it the day after we gave it to him, that's ace.

Checking out more creativity over here.