Freezer Paper Stenciled Shirts

This past weekend my peeps and I attended our annual scrapbook event.  We always have a team name/theme and matching shirts/hats to go along with it.  This year I came up with "The Paper Bags" for our team name.  I designed a logo for our shirts and while I could have cut it from HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl), I thought it would be more cost efficient to make them with paint--especially as we would only wear them for one day. 

I have seen other people use the freezer paper stencil technique and thought I'd give it a go.  My design was a bit complicated but once I figured out how to get all the parts of it on the shirt, it went very smoothly.  Here's how I made the four shirts shown above:

Step One:

I created the design in Photoshop and imported into my SCAL3, creating a SVG cut file. I took a sheet of Reynolds Freezer Paper and placed it shiny side down onto my cutting mat and using my Silver Bullet cutter, I cut out the entire design.

Step Two:
I found that it was easiest to leave the "insides" of the design attached to the mat and pull off just the outer portion at first.  I placed the design on the ironed shirt (pre-washed with no fabric softener) and with a very hot iron, I pressed the freezer paper to the shirt, going over the cut edges a few extra times.  My paper turned a bit darker but I did not discolor the shirt,

Step Three:
I carefully lifted each of the pieces stuck to the mat and placed them where they belonged on the design, ironing them down as I went.

Step Four:
Once everything was placed back together I did one final ironing.

Step Five:
Now I was ready to stencil.  I used regular acrylic paint (Delta) and mixed in an equal amount of JoSonja Textile Medium.  (I have used this medium for years and it is THE BEST for fabric painting.  There is no need to buy special fabric paints when you have a bottle of this.  Plus it's soft and supple)  I placed old cardboard behind the design so that any paint bleed through did not go onto the other side of the shirt.   Then, using a stiff flat brush, I "pounced" on the paint over the stencil.  You will not have paint seeping under your stencil if you pounce rather than "brush on" your paint.

Step Six:
Once the paint was dry, I peeled off the paper and heat set the design using Teflon sheets and a hot iron.  These stencils are not reusable, you will have to cut one for each shirt you plan on creating.  

Here's a pic of me and my Bestie Sue in our shirts and paper hats too!  I put everyone's name on the right shirt sleeve as well.  I love how nice these shirts came out.  We got tons of compliments on them...some of the ladies thought we had them professionally printed!  This may have been my first freezer paper project but it definitely won't be my last!