Freezer paper stencils

So who doesn't love new clothes when we are going somewhere exciting?  For me it's cruising and Walt Disney World.  I don't like to wear the same clothes when I go to those places because I know there will be hundreds of pictures taken.  Unless you have one of those expensive DIY cut machines it's just not affordable to buy tons of new shirts for your family.  I always try to talk my husband into doing matching shirts when going to Disney and he just doesn't take the bite.  So I started making my own shirts to support my habit of not wanting to wear the same thing each time we go.

How do you keep it under $5?  You shop clearance racks when they are closing out Summer and Winter Seasons.  If you don't have enough time to plan for that then you can get t-shirts in the craft department from Walmart for less than $4.  I use the $0.50-$1 paints from Walmart as well.  Get creative too.  I use glow in the dark paints, glitter, etc.  Your biggest expense will be the freezer paper which usually runs around $8 for a big box.  But it lasts a long time because you don't need much when you do it.  Only the size of the image you will be cutting out, so no need to waste it.

Its really easy but time consuming so you will want to work on it a month or so before you leave for your vacation.

You will need the following supplies:

1. Freezer Paper
2. Paints (fabric paint works best, but I have used the $0.80 ones from Walmart and they last a while)
3. Shirt, Pants, Jacket, Cloth tennis shoes, Backpack, etc. that you want to paint
4. An image you want to paint
5. Scissors
6. Paintbrushes or foam brushes
7. Hairdryer
8. X-Acto Knife 
9. Frame matting
10. Marker
11. Tape 
12. Cardboard
13. Iron or heat press

                                                                                                                                     Instructions:

1. Print out the image you want off the internet (silhouettes work best)  
2. Tape the image on a window, place freezer paper on the shiny side down on top of the image.
3. Trace the image.  Be sure to color all of it in because you will need those wide lines to cut.
4. Use an x-acto knife and cut out all the black off the paper you traced
5. Iron the image (Shiny side down) onto your shirt like shown in the image below.
6. Place cardboard inside the shirt so the paint won't leak through.
7. Paint the image then use a hairdryer to dry the paint.
8. Peel the freezer paper off and ENJOY!

 
This next set of images were a little more time consuming because I used several paints to get the effect I wanted.  It turned out pretty awesome.  

Tinkerbell was done a different way.  See instructions above, but instead of throwing out the black pieces you cut out keep those and throw away the big piece of freezer paper.  (I always use both so I can get a two for one on painting shirts for my family).  You will have to iron down a few pieces at a time so they won't slide while you are trying to iron them down.  Then you take the paint brush and paint over the pieces and brush out.  I like to use matting frames now because in this one below because Tinkerbell had an odd shape and it wasn't even on both sides of her body it didn't form a perfect circle.  When using the matting it is best to use masking tape to tape it down so the paint won't leak under it.  

One other technique to try is after you iron on the freezer paper, instead of painting it I used clorox in a spray bottle and created this look.  You will need to place cardboard inside the shirt to make sure the clorox doesn't bleed through to the back side.  

We used this one for a Carnival Cruise Breakfast.  It was so much fun.  

Test it out on different things and textures too.  I tried them on a pair of cloth tennis shoes.  Happy Painting!