Getting Real With Wanda Morrissey
I have been on a real craft kick lately. I’ve been surfing the net looking for new ideas that I can try. I discovered something called ‘freezer paper stenciling’. Apparently, it’s been around for some time but I’m just discovering it now. It looked so simple that I had to try it. I’ve done two stenciling projects this way and I’ve got a couple more lined up.
One night while sharing zombie-like at my computer screen, I failed to notice that I was leaning on an uncapped pen and ended up with an ink stain on the oatmeal colored shirt I was wearing. My initial reaction was that my shirt was ruined but then I thought that it would be a good chance to experiment with freezer paper stenciling. If the project didn’t turn out, no harm no foul, the shirt was already ruined.
Starting simply, I printed out a picture of star. I taped it to a piece of freezer paper and used a craft knife to cut out the shape. The next step was to iron my stencil unto the shirt. Freezer paper has a thin coat of plastic on one side, if you put the plastic side down on the fabric and iron over the paper side it’ll stick to the fabric, holding your stencil in place and eliminating the need to pin it down.
Then I got my fabric paint and painted over it. I thought that one star would look out of place, so I added two more. Once the paint dries, you just peel the freezer off. Tada, a brand new shirt, sort of.
Considering this was an experimental piece, I thought that it turned out really well. I used black paint which I think was too dark for the shirt but I needed it dark enough to cover blue ink. And I should have put a little more thought into the position of the stars, you can tell it’s amateur work. But all thing considered, I didn’t have to throw away a perfectly good shirt. I’ll just save it for the days I’m bumming around the house or doing messy work.
