Personalizing or adding a graphic can turn ordinary into extraordinary and help you make unique but inexpensive party favors. I’ve now found a very easy method to stencil your personal touch onto any fabric that I want to share with you.
Put your memorable mark on t-shirts, inexpensive canvas bags, aprons, wide brimmed hats; anything sufficiently flat to be ironed. Meaning- you can adopt this to a multitude of party themes. For preteen girls, you can even ask them to bring a few t-shirts to make their own from stencils you’ve prepared for them ahead of time.
This is the freezer paper method for stencils. You can hopefully find freezer paper in the foils and wraps section at your local supermarket, but if not it’s available online. Freezer paper has one shiny (waxy or plastic) side and one matte side (plain paper). You can’t use waxed paper as both its’ sides are waxed.
Choose your graphic(s) for your stencil. I recommend keeping it simple as you will need one stencil for each piece you intend to make- these stencils are NOT re-usable. To personalize, just use each guests name or initials that you’ve printed out in the font of your choice on your computer.
Tape your stencil graphic to the matte non-waxy side of your freezer paper (the waxy side is DOWN) on a cutting board or other appropriate surface and cut out your stencil with a good sharp X-Acto knife. Remove the graphic you’ve used and remove the cutouts from the freezer paper.
Have the fabric you’re going to stencil all ironed and wrinkle free. Place a piece of freezer paper waxy side UP underneath the area you’re going to stencil and your stencil waxy side DOWN on the fabric. Iron your stencil onto the fabric on a DRY setting once, wait for it to cool and if not sufficiently stuck, repeat. If your stencil has any ‘bridges’ that you don’t want in the final graphic, carefully cut them out now.
Dab your paint on with a sponge – use fabric paint or acrylic paint. Once dry, heat set your graphic. TA DA- you’re done!
Create unique party favors for kids with this technique without breaking the bank.
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