Freezer Paper Stenciling

A few weeks ago I posted this photo on my Facebook page:

Okay, for a moment can we stop and wonder WHERE THE HECK DID MY BABY GO??? I mean, yesterday he looked like this -

And now he's all grown and stuff. Say WHAAAA????

But I digress. The reason why I took the photo in the first place was to show his shirt. Believe it or not, that is the very first thing I've ever stenciled with freezer paper ever! It's one of those things that I've known how to do in theory for years, but never actually got around to trying until now. I've even had the freezer paper stashed in my craft room for about six months!

A few people asked about the technique when I posted the photo. I kind of assumed that everyone had heard about and tried this before me, but I guess not. Luckily for those folks, I took pictures! YAY! I now bring you yet another Freezer Paper Stenciling Tutorial!

You're going to need... Freezer Paper!!! HA! You can buy it in the aisle with aluminum foil and waxed paper. You get a HUGE roll that will last forever for about four bucks. There are a lot of things you can do with this if Pinterest is to be believed. ;)

You're also going to need to print out your design. I went with the logo that the main character on a popular Mexican tv show from when I was a kid wore on his chest. Cut it out with an X-Acto knife. Alternately, you could cut this out with a Silhouette/Cricut. Just be sure that you stick the paper to the cutting mat shiny side down.

Iron the piece of freezer paper to your shirt. The iron melts the plastic coating on the paper just enough to get it to stick to the fabric, but not enough to ruin it.

Put a piece of paper/cardstock inside the shirt to protect it from the paint bleeding through, then just paint inside your stencil with fabric paint! I did learn that not all fabric paint is created equal. I had a bunch of puff paint so I figured I'd just use that since the color I wanted was not in my collection in regular fabric paint. Bad move - it took about fifty coats because it ended up being way sheer when brushed out! Lame, but eventually I got good enough coverage.

After the paint was dry, I just carefully peeled off the freezer paper from the shirt. I probably should have done it when the paint was wet, but live and learn, right?

I think the boy liked it, even if he didn't understand it.