Today it’s all about freezer paper stencils. You can use these to make T-shirts, patches, paper crafts and more. I’m fairly new to this printing technique and I’m already hooked. Here is video from my Take Five & Company TV appearance on freezer paper stencils.

Here’s what you do…

Supplies:

T-shirt, paper or fabric to print on.

Freezer paper (Sold in a roll at your local grocery store.)

Craft blade with cutting mat (or heavy cardboard to protect your table).

Acrylic craft paint (plus textile medium if you want to print permanently on fabric)

Scissors

Pencil

Craft punches (optional)

8″ Embroidery hoop

Piece of white sheer polyester cut slightly larger than your hoop.

Iron

Small foam brush or old credit card

Step 1: Make your stencil. Draw  an image or text on the dull side of the freezer paper and cut out the part you want to print with a craft blade.

Step 2: Place your freezer paper stencil glossy side down on the fabric and iron it in place. Pull the fabric taunt in an embroidery hoop and place over the surface you wish to print on. If you want to make washable fabric items, mix textile medium into the paint before applying paint to the fabric.

Step 3: Apply paint with a foam brush, or squeeze out a line of paint on the stencil above the cut-out image and use a credit card like a squeegee to distribute the paint evenly over the fabric. (One pass should do the trick if your image is small. This method is a little trickier, but will leave you with a nice, screen print-like effect.

Step 4: Lift the hooped screen off the fabric and check out your print. If you want to keep printing, move fast because the paint dries very quickly and you don’t want to print with dried paint clogging the screen. If it starts to get too dry, rinse out the screen, dry and iron the freezer paper to the polyester screen again.

Step 5: Keep printing! Then use the paper prints as framed art or note cards and the fabric prints to make patches for jeans, bags, stuffed items or aprons.