Screen Printing your own T shirts with Freezer Paper

You've probably seen this sprinkled around the web on various blogs and how-to sites.
But, Meg and I thought we'd try our hand at it.
What's so nice about this project is, you can make just about any image you want (depending on what you want to tackle), its cheap and even kids can get involved.
Come along for the ride, there are tons of photos to help you if you decide to make your own t shirt.

What you'll need...

~freezer paper (not wax paper or parchment) cut into 8.5x11" to fit into your printer
~fabric paint (got mine at Joann's Fabric store, they were 50% off...woo!)
~foam brushes or paint brushes
~cardboard
~X-acto knife

for the first step, you'll need to find an image you'd like to use.
I found an image of Gir.
Don't know Gir?  Ask your kids!  =)
I printed him out onto the paper side of the freezer paper (NOT the wax side)
This may take some experimenting to find out how your printer feeds and prints on paper.

 

With an X acto knife, cut out the part of the image that you want to become the painted part...in a sense, turn it into a stencil.  I did this on top of a self-healing cutting mat.  Here's Gir, all cut out.

Place your cut out onto your t shirt wherever you'd like it to be.  I put him on the back side of my tshirt on the bottom right so he'd sit on my hip.  Don't forget to place a piece of cardboard inside your t shirt so that the paint won't bleed thru to the other side of the shirt.

Now, with a dry iron (heated up to the highest setting for the type of fabric your t shirt is), iron your image down.
The wax side will adhere to the t shirt.  Isn't that neato??

Looking at the original image, I started painting Gir.

The wax will keep the paint from seeping, just be careful as you paint not to lift the edges of the stencil up.
With a blow dryer, you can dry the paint a little quicker than if you let it dry naturally.  But, either way is okay.
Now, peel the wax paper off!
It got dark on me, so I didn't take a pic of peeling off the wax paper.  But, when I did, I noticed my mistake.
Yep, Im human...so human its not even fair sometimes.
Anywho, Gir is grey....so is my shirt.
D'oh! *facepalm*
So, I got out a black Sharpie and outlined him so you could uh...SEE him on the shirt.

 

As you might be able to see...I ended up adding some highlights and shadows to his metal body so he'd be a little more 3D.  But, it wasn't necessary.  Ain't he just precious??
After the paint dried for 24 hrs. I set it with the iron.  Just follow the directions on your fabric paint.
Here are some more we did.
Meg's Irken logo....again, ask you kids, folks.
Meg and I happen to be cartoon dorks =/

She was ambitious on her first t shirt by using a black shirt (takes a lot of paint to cover the black) and she decided to make kind of a reverse stencil so that her black shirt would be the outline of her image.

And finished!

This is also one I did, probably a good choice for a beginner as its just text.
I *heart* Mumford and Sons.
Don't know them?  Ask your kids!  lol
no, srsly, search for them on Youtube.  They are a West London band, so extremely talented.
I suggest listening to "The Cave" and "Dust Bowl Dance", ohh and "Thistle and Weeds".   I bet you'll love them, too!
Anyway, I couldn't find a shirt with their logo, so I improvised.

Hope you found something to inspire you!  My husband wants an Opus shirt now.  Remember Opus?
I promise I'll post a recipe soon.
I just haven't been feeling well and food doesn't sound good to me yet...blech.