By General Crafts Contributor Michelle

Have you tried making your own custom stencils out of freezer paper?  Create unique stencils to make a design on a t-shirt, tote bag, tablecloth, or other fabric items.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

• Freezer Paper (Usually found in the aisle of the grocery store where the tinfoil and plastic wrap are.)
• Computer & Printer
• 8.5×11-inch Piece of Cardstock (To use as a template to trace.)
• X-Acto #1 Precision Knife
• Cutting Mat
• Scissors
• Plaid Paint Essentials Stencil Spouncer Set 10pc
• DecoArt SoSoft Fabric Paint
• Iron
• T-shirt, Tote Bag, or Other Fabric Items

To begin, using a piece of 8.5×11-inch cardstock as a template, trace a rectangle onto the paper side of the freezer paper, and cut it out.   On your computer, choose the design you will use for your stencil and bring the image into a program like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Paint, Word, etc., anywhere you can size the image, and print onto a letter-sized sheet of paper.  Load the rectangle of freezer paper you cut into the printer so your image will print onto the paper side, not the plastic side.  Remember, you DO NOT need to mirror your image when you print it–what you see is how it will stencil.  Print the image, and then using your X-Acto knife, begin cutting out your stencil.

When creating your stencil, the areas that are left open will be the color of your fabric paint you apply, and the parts that are covered with paper will be the color of your shirt.  I suggest cutting from the inside of your design, cutting out small, interior areas of detail first, and working out.  Be sure to set the pieces you need aside in a place where you won’t confuse them with the scraps, so you can iron them on later.

Set your iron to medium heat, and carefully iron your stencil onto your fabric, paper side up.  Iron the largest piece on first, and then work down to the smaller interior pieces.  You can tack down the pieces with the end of the iron, and then carefully peel them up, if need be, to reposition them.  Once you are satisfied with the positioning, firmly iron the paper to the fabric.  Let cool.

Using a spouncer brush, apply a thin layer of paint over your stencil, using an up-and-down bouncing motion.  Let dry, and keep adding thin coats, drying in-between, until you reach your desired level of coverage.

Peel your stencil off of the fabric, let dry, and set paint according to package directions.

This is a fun way to make custom items–you can be as simple, or as detailed as you feel like cutting out the design for.  What could you stencil by creating your own freezer paper stencil?

Happy crafting!