were you aware that if you cut freezer paper down to a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, you can put it (shiny side up) right into your printer & print on it? this is a recent discovery for me & after countless stencils i've made out of freezer paper with a regular piece of paper with the image printed on it under the freezer paper, i'm uber happy to save paper & a step!
before you print, you must decide what image it is you want on your tee. it took me a minute to decide as there were many potential tees papaeel would love. i considered a nod to one of our favorite movies, the royal tennenbaums & making a tee with royal on it for papaeel & then another with richie "the baumer" on it for babyeel (we could probably start referring to him as littlemaneel, because he is getting further & further away from being a baby). i decided i would make them matching melvins tees. we love the melvins (even littlemaneel can't resist rocking out to them whenever they're on)! we actually got to see them live last month & oddly enough got to meet king buzzo himself! there was no parking near the venue, other than at walgreens & we decided to be blatant sign ignorers & park in their lot anyway. as we were getting our tickets ready a car pulled into the lot & parked right next to us. when i looked over, i noticed the driver was none other than king buzzo! he was so gracious & even let us capture his image on camera! (yes, we could've further helped support the band by buying tees directly from them, but at $20 a pop, we decided $40 would fill our tank to get home & even pay for a late night meal, so we skipped out on the amenities)
so, pick your image & print it directly onto the dull side of your freezer paper (my image was ready to go. should you decide to use a more detailed image-such as a person, you may need to edit your image to make it black & white or use the stamp effect in photoshop). once printed, take your trusty xacto blade (mine has a swivel head, perfect for curves & details) & cut out your stencil. my original image had blocks around the letters-which i love, but made more difficult for this stencil, so i just decided to ignore those blocks & cut out the letters.
once it's completely cut out, you're ready to iron your stencil to your shirt (i jumped the gun & forgot to take pics until after i printed the first shirt-normally your stencil wouldn't have paint stains on it when it's first cut like the one shown below).
decide what colors you want your image to be. i just went with the colors the image already was (okay, so i couldn't help but make myself one too, hence the blue color shown. i made mine a different color & on a different colored tee, so as not to interfere w/the father & son matching tees). you can use fabric paint as i did, or acrylic paint. i used a foam brush for each color & brushed on an even coat. i only did one coat, but feel free to do another if you so choose.
let the paint dry completely, then remove your stencil & iron it onto your next shirt & your ready to paint your next tee! i was not able to find an exact match tee for littlemaneel, so i had a tim gunn moment & i made it work. the shirt i used for papaeel came in a pack, so i just cut up a 2nd tee to make an exact match for my little guy. i've never been one to use a pattern (except for my wedding/bridesmaid dresses) & so i just used an existing tee of H's as a pattern. i think it looks pretty decent!
here are my matching dudes! i love them! happy father's day!
