One-of-a-Kind Stencil Art

I have a new addiction.  It's fabric stenciling.

Back in November, I read this interesting article on How About Orange's blog regarding freezer paper stenciling.  After tracking down the materials needed for the project, I decided to experiment by creating one-of-a-kind designs for the young babies in my life.

To start, you need:

• Jacquard textile paint
• Sponge applicator brush
• Reynold's Freezer Paper
• Exacto knife or scissors
• Pencil
• Fabric (i.e. cotton t-shirt, canvas bag, etc.)
• Iron and ironing board

Tear out a piece of freezer paper.  With the plastic coated side facing down, use a pencil to draw your design on the paper side of the freezer paper.  Use an exacto knife or scissors to carefully cut out the design.

Iron the prepared freezer paper to the fabric with the plastic coated side facing down.  The plastic side of the freezer paper will stick to the fabric.  Turn the fabric over (or inside out) to iron on a larger plain sheet of freezer paper.  (This extra sheet of freezer paper will act as a barrier so that the textile paint won't soak through.)




Once the stencil has been applied to your fabric, dab your sponge applicator into the textile paint.  (You only need a little to start with.)  Carefully dab the paint into your stencil.  Smooth and wipe excess paint from your stencil using the sponge applicator.  Allow the paint to dry.  Clean the sponge applicator with water.




After the paint has dried, remove the freezer paper stencil.  Follow the directions on the textile paint bottle for setting the paint.



To make sure the designs were durable and kid-friendly, I threw a batch of them into the washer.  They came out fine and did not bleed.  I allowed them to dry on a rack and then ironed the wrinkles out.




Here are all the designs I created for the munchkins in my life.




I found this project to be fun and easy.  Although cutting out the stencils was time consuming, for Zora, Phoenix, Lennox, and Kingston, it was worth it.

"The only gift is a portion of thyself."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson