At long last! how I stencil...

To stencil/stamp a t-shirt, onesie, bag, whatever... here are the items you'll need:

t-shirt or whatever, blank
image you want stamped, ( silhouettes are easiest)
blank stencil transparencies
stencil sponge or makeup wedge
x-acto knife

tape

fabric paint

cereal box cardboard or something similar

surface to cut on- I use a self-healing mat

First of all... this is how I do this--but there's more than one way to do things! This is all about being creative... if you can think of a better way of doing things- or a better tool or something, try it out! More likely than not, you'll be glad you did!

Now you take your image, put it on your cutting surface, and then put your stencil transparency over the top. Tape them together so they won't move.

Then, take your x-acto knife, and cut out the black of your image. This is where your paint will go.

Put your cereal cardboard, or whatever, even another piece of paper inside your shirt so the paint won't leak through to the other side. Tape on your stencil where you want it to go.

Then take your stencil/ stamp sponge thing. It has a blunt top. Dip that in your fabric paint, and dab or stamp your stencil. I hope this makes sense... don't do strokes, as your stencil is only taped on, just stamp the paint directly on, or your image will be totally smudged.

Here is what it will look like.

Then carefully peel your stencil off!

TA DA!

If you don't want to use transparencies, you can also print your image directly onto cardstock, and cut that image out with your x-acto knife, and use your cardstock as your stencil. You can still re-use it a few times too.

Now of course, this is the very basic. Once you understand the basic idea though, a whole world of possibilities is at your fingertips.

Some inspiration for me on this project and many more come from the following 2 sights that I LOVE LOVE LOVE.

littleblackkitty.typepad.com/

check out her self portrait stencil tutorial, and everything else! This lady is AMAZING!

also, theartfulparent.com

check out freezer paper stenciling! So awesome! I haven't tried it yet because I haven't found any freezer paper.... and because you can't use your stencils over and over... but still, in many ways this would be SO much easier!