Day 34--Freezer Paper Stencil

I have seen several pins on Pinterest using Freezer paper in arts & crafts projects.  Who knew you could use it as an iron on stencil?  I had to try it!

I pinned a LEGO man t-shirt idea a couple of months ago. 

Landon LOVES LEGOS, so I thought this t-shirt idea would be fun to make for him.  Find the tutorial here.

While I was at it, I picked up a small canvas bag for Savannah to put her initial on. 

The tutorial is great and easy to follow. She even has a link for a LEGO man face to print & use.

I wanted a different LEGO face, so here is what I did.

I Googled LEGO faces, copied & pasted one that I liked into a Word document.  Cropped it down and expanded it to the size I needed.  I bought a yellow, youth large shirt from Michaels. My face ended up being about 7 inches wide and 5 inches tall.  I changed the color to a light gray & printed.

I laid it out on the shirt and it was the perfect size!!

I cut a piece of freezer paper and taped it to my face.  Then I traced the features on to the matte side of the paper.

(Freezer paper has a shiny side & a matte side--the shiny side will be ironed down, so trace on the matte side.)

I chose to cut the features out with scissors rather than using an exact-o knife. It just seemed easier.

Next, iron the stencil onto the shirt.

So easy!!  I folded my stencil in half & made a small crease at the top to line up with the tag in an effort to center the stencil. It worked!!

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the painting part.

I used black fabric paint and painted 2 layers.

I couldn't wait so I peeled the stencil off before it was dry.

How cool is that???  I added the white part of the eyes after the black paint dried.  I just free handed that part.

Notice the wet spot on the upper left of the shirt? Ugh...

I was working on Savannah's bag at the same time.  A tiny bit of pink paint was on my finger & of course I got it on the shirt. Thankfully, Resolve stain remover took it off!! Whew!

I'm SO happy with how this shirt turned out.  The plan is to put it in his Easter basket.  But it will be hard to wait another 10 days to give it to him...

Here is Savannah's bag.

I used the same techniques as I did for the shirt. Picked a font I liked, measured how big it needed to be & printed.

Taped a piece of freezer paper to the "S", traced and cut.

The bag is a canvas bag from the Dollar Tree. The freezer paper did not want to stick to the canvas as well as it did to the cotton shirt.

I used pink acrylic paint that I had on hand. The bag probably won't be washed so I didn't use fabric paint.

The freezer paper stuck to the bag when I went to peel it off.

Not sure what happened but I was disappointed.

I guess it's just the different type of fabric--canvas vs. cotton.

After the paint dried, I scrubbed the bag lightly with water & a paper towel.  It worked fairly well.

The picture doesn't show it but in person you can still see the freezer paper just a little. But it's still a cute bag and I think/hope Savannah will like it!

This was SO easy and SO fun!  I already have big ideas for gifts I need to make using this technique.  

So excited!!