Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial - 2 Colors!

Years ago I some how came across this (Now defunct.) site called StencilPunks.org, which taught me how to use freezer paper to make stencils to paint onto shirts. I was like, "Wow! How cool is that!" and had my mom buy me some freezer paper on our next grocery trip (Which I actually am still using. So it goes a long way.) It had a whole whack of tutorials on how to do stencils in different ways, and a bunch of stencils. The stencils them selves are being hosted on Tumblr now, which you can find here, but the tutorials seem to be long gone.

I know there a bunch of tutorials out there for one color, and it's super easy to do two colors, but not a lot of people seem to be covering it. So I thought I could show how I've done it while I make up some shirts for my bead stuff! Win win for everybody! This post is going to be mildly picture heavy, so fair warning.

Enough chit-chat, here's the tutorial.



First off, here's a little list of materials.

You will need:
- Paint of some kind. I use Liquitex Basics because it's what my local Micheal's has, and it said flexible when dry on the package. It's acrylic but fabric paint might work better. Also worth mentioning, when this paint get washed a lot it does start to look more distressed. As seen here.
- Paint brushes.  Pick a size close to the size of your stencil. Don't use a massive brush for little spots or vise versa.
- A craft knife. For cutting the stencils!
- The ever-so-important freezer paper. The brand I have is Reynolds, probably other brands out there but this box has lasted me years.
- Pins. For pinning.
- An iron. To adhere the freezer paper to your shirt! Or whatever you're stencilling on.
- Shirts or other fabric material. Denim works excellently. I have made a number of vests that have turned out much nicer then anything I've done on cotton.
- Scissors. Used to cut the paper down to a more manageable size. And my freezer paper since the box is long since destroyed.
- And of course, the stencils them selves! For stencilling!

Also not pictured but recommended:
- A cutting mat. I don't have a nice fancy one, so I use a plastic cutting board.
- A rag or spare piece of cloth. For ironing over your design without mucking up your iron.


Step two is to make your stencil patterns!

Mine was super simple to convert into a stencil because it already had crisp, clean lines and 2 very obvious colors. If you folks want me to, I can probably do a tutorial on how to make the stencils too, but for now here is a handy Instructable that shows how to make an image into a stencil.

When doing 2 colors, make sure you pick colors that are different enough from each other so you can distinguish them when they have been printed.

If you are doing a larger stencil, like I wanted for the back of my shirt, your best bet for printing it out would be to use Adobe Reader. If you're just doing a 8.5" by 11" or smaller stencil, feel free to skip ahead.

Save your image as a PDF and then open it with Adobe Reader and hit print. You'll want to set the Page and Size Handling to Poster, and I made the Overlap 0.10 inches instead of the default 0.05 inches. I found it was easier to line up when I was taping them together.

Continuing with the large stencils, once it is printed you need to make the separate pages meet. To do this, pick one side and trim the paper so there is no white border. Line it up as best as you can with the other side, and tape it in place. I find this step a bit hard to explain, so take a look at the photo below.

Perfect!

Now it doesn't matter if you were doing a small stencil or a multi-page larger stencil, you want to trim it down a bit now. Not too much, but to something a little more manageable then a full sheet of paper. You want to leave enough paper around the design to be able to pin it down.

So now we have our printed out stencil, the next step is to lay out your freezer paper. One side of the paper is shiny, like wax paper. The other is just like regular paper. (Some people have luck printing directly on the freezer paper, but from my experience the waxy side gets stuck and causes all sorts of problems in your printer. It's up to you if you want to try to print directly on the freezer paper.) You want to put the waxy side down, onto your shirt. Then take your iron, I have mine set to Wool, and just iron the paper down until it is all stuck to the shirt. Don't worry, the paper peels off without any residue left behind!

Here's what it should look like.

Next you want to pin your stencil design to the shirt. It helps if you have someone around to have the shirt on, so you can see where it will sit. If not, I just kinda eyeball it, and use a ruler to see if the edges seem straight enough. Once you are happy with the position, pin down all 4 corners.

And now the mildly tedious part. You take your trusty craft knife and start trimming out the letters! Try to be as precise as possible, and most importantly, don't loose the little dots! To be more specific, you see how the "P" has a little square in the middle of it? You need to keep that in place! Same with any other letters like "A" and "R" for example. I find the best way to do this is to cut the letter out, then lift just a corner of the letter and use the edge of your craft knife to hold it in place while you peel away the rest of the letter. If it ends up loose, do your best to keep it in place then take the tip of your iron and just flatten it back out. The iron needs to be hot still, so I usually just leave it on while I am cutting the letters out. Because I swear every one of them will lift up!

Make sure when you are cutting, you only cut the one color out right now. In the photo below you can see I just did the gray letters. Not the black.

Once you have the letters all cut out, and your little dots are secure, you want to remove the paper with the design on it. So unpin it, and set it aside. You'll need it again later in most cases. If you are doing one color then you wont need it again but multicolor things you can usually save some paper and ink by reusing a pattern. If you are doing the same thing on many shirts though, I recommend a stencil for each shirt, as going over an already cut patter on new freezer paper is a bit tricky.

Once you have removed the paper you'll see only what you've cut out! Give it a quick go over with the iron to make sure all the edges are as stuck down as they can be, and you're ready to paint!

It may take multiple layers to get the color to be just right. As you go, let each layer dry and then place a rag or cloth over top of it (Something you don't mind getting paint on, if it happens to come off a bit.) and run your iron over it. This way your iron wont get all gummed up from the paint and you can make sure the edges of your stencil are still down.

 Once your layers are done, and it's dried for a bit, you get to peel off the freezer paper! Grab a corner and peel it back. Anything left behind, just user your craft knife to get it up, like the dots.

Now if you're only doing one color, congratulations! You're done!

The thing I find with cotton products though, is the paint tends to get underneath the edges, no matter how careful I am. I believe this is because the cotton fabrics tend to move and stretch while you paint, where as denim doesn't have that effect.

If you've got more then one color, it's time to repeat the steps. Take your freezer paper again and cover the part where you've already applied the paint. Just like last time, waxy side down. The tricky part comes in making sure the second color lines up with the first. It's not so bad if your design isn't 2 colors precisely beside each other like mine. But if it is take your time in lining it up. You'll regret it later if you don't!

Once your second color is dry, and you've peeled off the freezer paper you are done!

Stand back and admire your work! Modeled by my lovely boyfriend, Steven!

Now truth be told, I dislike the colors on this. The blue is far too dark, and I'll be redoing them with a lighter shade. So a quick little tip, if have any spare material try and test the paint on it first so you know how the colors will turn out!

I will post a photo of the new shirts on here later when they are complete! Until then, have a good Sunday everyone!

Edit March 30th, 2015: Here are the "New and Improved" shirts! Both say PkmnMasterTash Creations! on the front right hand side, and then my shirt also says PkmnMasterTash along the back. They turned out much, much nicer then the first attempt color wise. So I'm very pleased now!