Freezer paper stencils

Painting fabric with a freezer paper stencil is all the rage right now on the crafty blogs that I read everyday. So, I decided to get on the bandwagon and try it out for myself. I first heard about this technique while reading The Creative Family and knew I was going to do it one day. Well, here are the pictures from my first attempt.

By the way, you must use freezer paper for this craft....wax paper will ruin and melt onto your fabric due to its double side of wax coating. Parchment paper will be of no use since it contains no wax at all. Freezer paper is great for this because it has one dull side and one waxy side.

First, find a picture or pattern that you'd like to paint onto your fabric. You can use a shirt, pant, purse, canvas bag/tote, handkerchief, tea towel, etc. I chose to paint a small t-shirt for my daughter. Lay the picture directly on top of one piece of freezer paper (cut to size), shiny side down. I would advise placing some cardboard underneath the papers since you'll be using a knife and don't want to cut the table underneath.

Next, cut out your pattern with an Exacto Knife, pressing hard so you can pass through both pieces of paper. I would advise finding pictures and patterns with simple lines. Now, punch out the actual picture, leaving only the stencil for you to work with.
Now set your iron to low heat. While the iron is heating, set a piece of freezer paper inside the shirt so that it's directly under where you plan on painting the stencil. Make sure this inside piece is shiny side up. Imagine that the two pieces of freezer paper will be facing each other, touching if it weren't for the fabric in-between.

Place the stencil onto the shirt, shiny side down. Apply the heated iron to the stencil and rub around the picture gently but with firmness since this is how you get the stencil to adhere (temporarily) to the shirt (freezer paper underneath) so it doesn't move when you're painting. It also helps to keep the sides of the stencil in place so the paint doesn't bleed under the ends of the picture.

Choose your color and paint the stencil.

Let the stencil dry (about 2 hours, depending on how thick your layers are) and then peel the paper away to reveal the final result. You can always add more details to the stencil if you'd like. I plan on putting some legs and an eye on this little birdy. Ta-da!