Friday, July 23, 2010

Robot T-shirts

I am in L-O-V-E with freezer paper stencils.
Did you hear that? El-Oh-VEE-EE!
It's easy to do and the result looks very professional.
This post about easy wall art includes a getting started tutorial and this fantabulous blogger (who started my crafting obsession, by the way) has a great tutorial here about it.
So here are some pics and additional tips for the customized tees I made for Ben's 2nd birthday party.
First, I visited IStockPhoto.com for inspiration. Quick Google image searches can serve you well also.
I printed the pics on to regular paper, then traced them on to freezer paper. (You can also cut your freezer paper to 8 1/2 X 11 and print directly on the non-shiny side, if you like.) The trimming is the most tedious part of the process -- so the simpler your design the better.
To get the colors I wanted, I mixed up regular old acrylic paint with this stuff called "fabric medium." It magically transforms your acrylic paint to fabric paint and is AWESOME. You don't need very much of the "fabric medium" (the medium costs MAYBE $5, and I bought my paint on a late night Meijer run, I think. It was also uber-cheap.)
Iron your stencil on, paint and dry like so:


Once everything is dry (usually overnight -- thus the crappy lighting here. I think I was doing this at, like, 10 p.m.) iron right on top of the dried paint to heat set it. (This is important! It softens the paint a little and make the look totally profesh!)

Then, dress up your toddler:

Or yourself and your hubby!

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