Freezer Paper T-shirt tutorial

[LMCH]

okay ladies...this is the first time I did this...so bear with me. The video I used as a reference can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRyXlSTtHPA (This girl is like 13 and made an awesome tutorial video). Then there was some trial and error involved (like with cutting the letters).

1. supplies: freezer paper (has a matte side and a shiny side. the shiny side is waxy coated), fabric paint, sponge brushes. I also have a little plastic palette, but that is not necessary. Before I got these (for other crafts) I used to use paper plates for holding the paint.


2. cut the freezer paper to fit your mat. Stick it to the mat shiny side up. Because you will put shiny side down on the t-shirt to iron it on as a stencil, if you are cutting words or anything you don't want to be mirrored, you need to cut using the "flip feature" I found on several tutorials online that they instruct you to put shiny side up b/c the shiny side doesn't stick well to the cricut mats. I found that if your mat is pretty sticky, it will stick shiny side down. So if you have a baby bug and don't have the "flip" feature but need to cut words, you could put shiny side down and have your words come out the right way (if that makes sense).


3. cut out your shapes/words. save the "negative" and "positive" images, since you will need to use some of each for stencils or to mask certain areas during painting...this includes keeping the "insides" of letters such as B, e, O, etc. Tip: It is best to cut things in the middle of the paper, so you have some extra paper around the edges to protect the shirt from the paint.


4. Iron on the stencil (shiny side down). You don't have to hold the iron on it for too long...and if you need to reposition, you can peel it off and re-iron it.

I started out with the part of the bee I wanted to be black and the words, which were going to be red.



5. Before applying paint, put a piece of freezer paper between the shirt to protect the other side from paint bleeding through. apply paint with sponge brush. my paint instructions stated you may need 2 coats. Since it was a white shirt and dark colors, I did apply 2 coats. Then let dry while freezer paper stencil is still on the shirt.


(the paint said to let dry 4 hours...after about 2 hours it was dry enough to peel off the stencil and apply a different color.)

6. peel off stencil


7. place down other pieces to complete second color on the bee. depending on what image you select to paint on, you will have to do some planning ahead about which pieces you want to use (either the negative/outer pieces to be a stencil or the positive/inner pieces to mask). Originally I was going to make the wings yellow, but after the black was done, I changed my mind...so I had to do some finagling and painting without a piece of stencil between the black wings and yellow stripes. IN this step I had intended to place the whole bee stencil down and the lines to mask the black strips and fill in everything else yellow. BEcause I decided last minute to do the wings black, it was not as simple as it could have been. Anyway, like I said, depending on your shape and what colors you want, just think about which pieces would be best and what order it would be best to use them to apply the different colors. Next time I do this I will plan that better and not change my mind about colors midway through


8. apply second color (in this case would have been all yellow, but I did add black to the wings also due to my change of mind )


9. let dry for a little while, then peel off stencil and VOILA!

mine looks lumpy in some places, but it is not...it is just shiny b/c it was still drying. I wanted to take a final pic rather than letting it dry more before peeling the stencils off.

Final tips

***one thing they don't mention about using "flip" feature for printing out words is that you then have to spell the words backwards. This is one of the trial and error things I figured out. The first time I cut it out, I got "enim eeb" So, if the paper is shiny side up, and you want to "flip" the words so they will be correct when the paper is ironed on...spell backwards

***Another issue I ran into is the way the cricut cuts the letters sometimes they don't line up... the letters aren't in a straight line like you would line them up in a title. I used "center point" to center the "bee mine" on my piece of freezer paper. I don't know if that is what got it to print out straight across...or if it was the font I chose. The other fonts didn't work out, but that was before i tried the "Center point" trick. I will let you know if I can get it to work with another font or if Don Juan just luckily lined up.

FYI, I used Tulip brand "soft" fabric paint. I didn't know it when bought this type of paint, but when browsing threads about these t's on cricut's site, a few people mentioned that the soft kind works well since it doesn't dry stiff on the shirt.

hope this helps...I will add stuff if I forgot anything or if I learn anymore tricks when I make another (DS's 2 year old bday shirt that I have been designing in my head )

[MommyCB]

wow, thank you thank you thank you for sharing this! you make me want to actually give it a try. I thought it'd be much harder, but I can see it's just very time consuming.

[StateChick]

Thank you for doing this and for the helpful tips. It will probably just get added to my list of "good intentions," but who knows...maybe I'll give it a try.

The shirt is very cute and I think you made excellent color decisions.

[coolmama72]

that looks awesome! and the tutorial is great! I know I won't make anything like this any time soon ... but will you please copy it into the sticky thread? that way it's always preserved for us.

[iluvmygemini]

this is so awesome, that i showed my DH he said "thats cool, i didnt know the cricut could do that!" lol i will have to try this!

[K9Trainer]

I agree! One more fun thing that bug can do! How neat! Thanks so much for sharing! You did a smashing job!

[pickle in middle]

Cool! I want to try one!
What's the difference between freezer paper and wax paper?

[LMCH]

Originally Posted by pickle in middle

Cool! I want to try one!
What's the difference between freezer paper and wax paper?

I am not sure...wax paper might be coated on both sides I know for a fact that freezer paper is only coated on one side. When I was at the grocery store, there were 3 different things - freezer paper, parchment paper, and wax paper...and i know they were all different somehow since they were all the same brand...so there had to be SOME difference. I am guessing, just from having seen wax paper before, that wax paper is covered on both sides.