Yesterday I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Becky. I am not a big fan of shower games, so we opted to do a group craft instead. We stenciled onesies, side-snap shirts, and burp cloths. They turned out very cute and I have had a lot of positive feedback on them. I'm going to lay out what I did for anyone interested.
1. Buy freezer paper. This is harder than it sounds. I finally found it at Ace Hardware. Also buy baby clothes you want to stencil. And fabric paints. And brushes. I used little silicon cupcake liners as paint cups.
2. Do an image search for stencil ideas. I would search things like "butterfly silhouette" to get just an outline for a stencil. Once I had all the images I needed, I put them on PowerPoint slides and cut the freezer paper to 8.5" x 11" and printed them. (Note: print on the non-waxy side to prevent smearing.) Next time I will print in a light gray instead of a black. My fingers got pretty dark from working with them.
3. Get out your cutting mat and an X-acto knife and cut out the stencils. Carefully!
4. Iron the waxy side onto your clothing until it sticks. Don't use steam.
5. Paint in a couple light layers, let dry, and say a little prayer for no smudging as you tear your freezer paper off. Ta-da!
I hope that helps someone out there in cyberspace! I always wonder if anyone is actually reading this blog...doesn't really matter; I like talking to myself.
I just stumbled across your blog, following links thru ravelry- so at least one person is out on the interwebs reading your blog!
ReplyDeletei love the stenciling idea- i might try it with my kids (5 and 8) during the winter holiday, when we are all going stir crazy.