Hello lovelies!
We hope this post finds you well and that you’re all having a wonderful week. I’m blogging from the fabulous, busy city of Miami as we’re here for another great project and cause with Home Depot!
In the meantime, I thought I’d share a little post I did with my kiddos earlier this week. Now that things are slowing down for us, I feel like we can get into the swing of things with the holidaisical fun that is Halloween. It’s our very favorite time of year per the kids, and we always love making a few things here and there to get them all kinds of amped up. They seriously love this holiday.
These are their spooky faces.
You’ve probably seen our ‘screen printed’ tees here before, and we absolutely love this process. I’ve even been known to use it a on a few items around the hizzy. It’s a simple, easy peasy kind of way to create your own custom look on the super cheap.
Here’s what you’ll need:
• Freezer paper
• Printed design
• Pencil
• Exacto
• Self healing mat (Optional, but helps with smoother cuts)
• Paint brush
• Fabric paint
• Iron + ironing board
• T shirt
• Magazine (or cardboard… anything you have lying around – Something to catch the paint in between the shirt and keep it from bleeding through to the other side.)
Known as the ‘poor man’s screen printing,’ the freezer paper method is basically an iron on stencil for fabric. (Cue light and angel choirs singing. If you’ve never done this before, you’re going to be addicted…) First things first: Select your pattern of choice that you wish to transfer to your tee. You’ll need the same thing for each t-shirt that you do, whether it’s one shirt or three. (If you want the same matching pattern, your template that you use will not be reusable, so you’ll be repeating these steps for each shirt.)
With your little helpers at your side, simply print out your design, and get your freezer paper ready. With the combination of a pencil and your stellar tracing abilities, transfer your design to your paper. (The non-slick side.)
Using your self-healing mat and an X-Acto blade, cut it out. Set aside any pieces you might also be using in your design that were cut separately. Watch those mouths and eyes of this little pumpkin zombie. Always consider the negative space before discarding any pieces.
Once it’s cut, place the slick side face down and iron it onto your garment of choice. Then get to painting. Before you do that, place your protective item (magazine or cardboard) in the middle of your tee. (Read: Don’t be like me and forget.) I’m always careful to paint away from each edge to preserve the sharpness of your paint against the fabric. You may want to use a combination of run of the mill crafting paint brushes + foam brushes for stamping, to get those sharper edges.
While I worked on the detailed shirts, we pulled out a few randos and got these two their own little works of art to work on in the meantime. {Read: I distracted them with paint and old t-shirts so they didn’t attack me. They needed baths afterwards. Fun times were had by all.}
When it’s dry, pull it up, and tada! Your very own design made by you!
We recommend giving it a quick pass with the blow dryer…sometimes heat-setting your paint before you wear or wash will help ensure its permanence. Wash inside out, and you’re set! I’ve never had a problem with this method…it’s my very favorite, tried and true!
These are our creepy Halloween faces.
Want these very same shirts? I’ve converted our original art over to the printable version for you, here. Simply click on over and look for ‘Halloween T-shirt’. It’s a fun little design for a diversity of ages! Print, trace, cut, iron + paint!
Enjoy, and happy halloweenie crafting. Have an inspired day!
Charron Ann says
This is a great idea! Thank you for sharing… especially love the “scary faces” plum scared me silly ;-)!
Have a safe trip home!
JP says
Love. And I love their faces đ
Emma Huffs says
How adorable. Thanks so much for taking the time to turn this into a printable! I love it.
Ashley says
I love reading your blog and subscribe by RSS feed. Can you please change it back to allow the whole feed to be visible via RSS?! Thanks for sharing all your loveliness!
ashley @ the handmade home says
Hi Ashley! Please see our post about that here. Thanks so much!
Ashley says
Ah! Now I understand. But as you can see I missed that whole post, because there wasn’t enough content or pictures to attract me to click over and keep reading. Maybe you could include more, and truncate a little less. I love reading and do understand you need to do something.
As an RSS feed reader I do skim feeds right through my e-mail, but those that I really want to read more on, see pictures better or really interest me I click to read on the web. I do LOVE your site and your info, but can tell I won’t be pulled in as easily anymore.
Good luck! Thanks for sharing so many great things!
ashley @ the handmade home says
I’m doing my very best to have that taken care of, right now. I can only do so much. Stay tuned!
Ashley says
I tried this today! I don’t know why, but I was expecting the wax paper to adhere to the fabric. I found that this was not the case? I am using Reynolds Cut-Rite Wax Paper; I don’t know if this makes a difference or not.
Thanks so much for this post! It is such a fun a craft and great way to get a little one in a one-of-a-kind shirt. {So many of my friends spend much $$$$ on embroidery, but I just can’t justify it for a top my little one will wear for 3 months or so!}
MrsG
pluswyattlee.blogspot.com
ashley @ the handmade home says
Hey Ashley! So glad you tried it! Yeah… it may make a difference with the wax paper. You need freezer paper. When heat is applied to the freezer paper with the iron, it will stick to the fabric, and form a stencil-like seal. It’s not perfect, but it definitely helps. Try that one next time-it will probably make a difference.;}