How To Transfer A Drawing Onto A Shirt

Did your kid draw the best picture, or you found a great image online? Find out how to transfer drawings to T shirts with freezer paper stenciling! Such a fun way to jazz up boring clothing and the most addicting craft ever! Tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

I just tin can't handle a manifestly garment. And I REALLY can't handle a plain T-shirt. And this is 1 of the reasons why I practise freezer paper stenciling and so oft. What's another reason?

Information technology's So EASY. It's So FUN. It'southward SO ADDICTIVE. (Are those enough reasons?!)

Back in 2022 I wrote a tutorial on how to freezer paper stencil. I stenciled a drawing my daughter had drawn of my husband to a T-shirt for him for Begetter's Day and information technology continues to exist, seven years later, his favorite t shirt. You can see it in the motion-picture show above.

Save this Cucicucicoo project on Pinterest

I decided to requite the tutorial a little facelift, cleaning upward the photos, making the instructions a little clearer and adding a bit of new information, except I couldn't find the original pictures anywhere. So I made a totally new tutorial from scratch to supplant the sometime one. So, despite the date on this post, what you're reading now was actually published March 29, 2022. (Just in example you're coming to this post after having seen ane of the old pictures on Pinterest, or something!)

Ok, enough about that. Allow's get down to business organization!

What IS freezer paper?

Freezer paper* can exist plant in whatsoever typical supermarket in the United States. It cannot be found anywhere in many other countries, such as my adopted state, Italy. It comes in rolls and looks an awful lot like regular wax paper. It has one paper side and one shiny side. And that shiny side creates a temporary bail with fabric when heated. This is the primal to what makes this newspaper so neat for crafting.

What if I can't observe freezer paper where I alive?

Y'all might be able to observe information technology on Amazon in your country (for example, hither on Amazon.com*). But over the years of non existence able to find it here in Italy, I've found a few groovy substitutes that work exactly the same mode every bit freezer newspaper.

Butcher newspaper. I personally accept never seen or used information technology, but I know people who accept with absolutely perfect results. Ask yous local butcher for a piece of it. If y'all're vegetarian, you might consider asking one of your carnivore friends to enquire.
Copy/printer paper packaging. This may non be universal, simply I've constitute that the newspaper that reams of photocopy or printer paper come in is usually laminated inside, and it sticks to material like freezer newspaper does.
Paper packages for silverware. Again, this may be very local to me, but I've plant more than i local pocket-sized and informal eating place that packages their silverware in these little envelopes that have the aforementioned sort of lamination equally the reams of printer paper.

Yous may detect this sort of paper in all sorts of other places, too. Just keep your eyes open up and test out a scrap of information technology on a slice of fabric to see if it adheres and then peels off easily.

Where tin I observe designs to stencil?

Anywhere! Most often I do a Google Images search for the thing that I'm looking for with either "black and white" or "stencil" added. And so, for example, when I wanted to stencil a cassette tape on one of my daughter's t-shirts, I searched for "cassette tape stencil" and found this prototype.

Enlarge it on your reckoner screen to the size y'all desire, put the freezer newspaper over it, and trace the image onto the paper side. Yous might want to simplify some more complex designs, like I did with this 1.

I also oft use my kids' drawings done with a thick magic marking (which is easier to trace and too makes a thicker line to be painted in). Once more, endeavour to use more elementary designs. When I asked my son to draw something he'd want on his shirt, he outset gave me the dinosaur skeleton on the right. Consider that y'all have to cut around every single line and relieve all the inside white bits and rearrange them. I asked him to draw a more elementary cartoon, and he gave me the elasmosaurus, which was much ameliorate!

But actually, you can trace anything you desire, every bit long as it has very definite positive and negative spaces (such equally in a single-colour cartoon).

Then, are you ready? Let me bear witness you how to transfer drawings to t shirts with freezer paper!

Materials:

T-shirt or other fabric item you want to decorate
Image to transfer
Pencil
Freezer newspaper*
Xacto knife* (or regular pair of scissors for larger parts) (non shown)
Small cutting mat* (not shown)
Fabric pigment (hither I am using Javana make glitter paint)**
Stiff bristle paint castor (many people employ foam paint brushes, though I never take myself)

**A note about pigment: Some people accept asked me if it's possible to use acrylic paint with freezer paper stencil. You can, simply I take never used information technology myself. Acrylic paint isn't made to be washed, so I don't know how it holds up afterwards repeated washings. Likewise, when you heat set textile pigment, it gets perfectly flattened so that it looks super professional.

Freezer paper stenciling is so much fun, but tracing designs can be a drag. However it's easy and quick when you learn how to print on freezer paper! There's even a special trick to print with a laser printer instead of an inkjet, or on A4 paper! Find out how on www.cucicucicoo.com!

If you want to stencil an epitome that is on your calculator, you can as well print directly onto printable freezer newspaper sheets*. These sheets are Us Letter size and made for ink jet printers, merely I came up with a neat trick to impress with a laser printer and to get around the paper size issue. You lot tin can read all about how to print on freezer paper here.

Step 1: Trace the paradigm

I ordinarily use masking tape to stick the epitome to a window with a sheet of freezer newspaper over it, and and so I trace over it onto the paper side of the freezer paper. Y'all can always utilise a lightbox or merely trace normally.

(Like the view of Mount Vesuvius we have?)

You need to trace Around the marks. See how my son'due south magic marker lines became "hollow" pencil lines? Y'all might want to color inside these lines to make the cutting less confusing.

Also, be certain to leave a somewhat wide margin of freezer newspaper all around the design to avert gettting paint on the cloth where it shouldn't go.

Step two: Cut out the stencil

Cut out and remove the insides of the lines that volition be painted. I ever use an Xacto pocketknife* on asmall cutting mat*.

Simply discard the little bits that correspond to what volition be colored in (at the top).

Remember to save the inner "islands" that demand to remain the color of the fabric. Y'all volition need to position them back in place when attaching the stencil to the material. If at that place are various similar parts, I suggest labelling them as you can see I did in the pic in a higher place (on the bottom).

Here's my prepared stencil, with all the "islands" put aside.

Stride 3: Adhere the stencil

Fe the fabric and lay information technology out on the ironing board. Position the outside role of the stencil on the fabric. With the atomic number 26 on high (or whatsoever setting your fabric can handle) with NO steam, fe over the stencil simply a few seconds, just enough for it to stay in identify on its own.

Position the "islands" one by i, apace ironing each as yous get to keep information technology in identify. Use the original epitome as a reference to make sure you're positioning them correctly, and use tweezers to maneuver small parts if necessary.

If you make a mistake, peel off the slice, reposition it, and iron over it over again. Try not to practise this besides much, because the paper won't stick anymore after a couple of quick irons.

When everything is perfect, iron over the whole thing once again, making sure that all pieces are well-adhered to the fabric.

Pace 4: Pigment the stencil

Put a piece of wax paper, a laminated paper bag, a plastic bag, or whatsoever other plastified material within the T-shirt (under the layer that will get painted) to protect the dorsum of the shirt and the ironing board.

Use the brush to apply a coat of cloth pigment inside the cutting-out parts. Brand sure to smooth information technology out and that the paint doesn't get over the outer border of the freezer paper. (This is why information technology'due south a good idea to go out a wide margin of freezer paper effectually the cartoon.)

Permit the pigment dry out for a few hours, then apply a second coat. Let it dry overnight.

*Notation* Different brands of cloth paint may have dissimilar instructions for application and setting. Make sure yous always follow the instructions given!

Footstep five: Remove the stencil

This is without a doubt the best part of freezer paper stenciling, because you finally get to see the consequence of your work.

Pull up a corner of the freezer paper and gently peel it off.

It may rip in some parts. Use tweezers to skin those parts off, equally well as the "islands".

Ta-da! Like magic, in that location is the perfectly reproduced image!

Footstep 6: Heat set the pigment

You will exist tempted to skip this step, simply if you take any intention of ever washing the item, just bite the bullet and Practice IT! Otherwise all your difficult work will literally get washed down the drain when the paint gets sudsy and scrubbed clean.

Set the fe to hot, no steam. Put a thin fabric over the pigment and atomic number 26 over the blueprint for 5 minutes (or any the paint instructions say).

Merely a word of alert: continue the iron moving. This may seem pretty obvious, but yous might go distracted while moving the iron over the same small area for 5 minutes. See how there's a yellowish-ish halo around my design? That's considering the material got lightly scorched because I didn't keep the iron moving enough. Whoops…

If yous do accidentally do this, don't worry nigh it. It'll eventually wash out for the most part. (I know this because I've accidentally done this earlier and not learned from my mistake!)

Speaking of washing, I always wash freezer newspaper stenciled garments on a cold delicate cycle. They take from time to fourth dimension made it into regular loads of laundry and nothing has happened to them, but I adopt to play it safe.

Scorched or non, it's withal adorable, correct?

And every bit far every bit I'm concerned, if information technology makes this prehistorical reptile-obsessed child happy, information technology makes me happy!

Save this Cucicucicoo project on Pinterest

So seriously, if you've never tried this technique out earlier, detect a fun blueprint and a blah shirt, and transfer drawings to t shirts with freezer newspaper stenciling! You lot will have so much fun and will want to do it over… and over… and over again!

If you only love using freezer paper for your crafting needs, check out this tutorial on how to print onto freezer paper with your domicile printer!