Monogrammed bag

I think everyone needs a personalized bag.  Teachers can't have enough bags for all the things they are working on.  For those of you who have been around awhile, you might remember the tutorial I did for these monogrammed totes, last year.

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Freezer Paper Turkey Shirt Tutorial

I made these last year, but they were such a hit I wanted to share them again with you.  It isn't too late to work these up for Thanksgiving!  I'm sorry not all the pictures are here anymore.  They have disappeared.  I tried to get as many as were still available.

Making your own personalized shirts is very easy and can save you a ton of money.  I love all the personalized items you can buy from Chasing Fireflies, but I am not willing to spend $50 on one shirt.  Instead, no matter what the special event or holiday, I make a personalized shirt or bag.  I've made shirts for Easter, birthdays, bags and now Thanksgiving Turkey shirts.

Shannon and Lesli taught me how to utilize freezer paper and the wonderful things it can make!  Thank you gals! For all my friends who have seen my Facebook posts sharing new shirts I have made, here is your tutorial.  On Wednesday, Shannon came over and we had a craft day making these shirts.  Tip:  It is always more fun to craft with friends!  Get some friends together and make some shirts for the holidays!

Freezer Paper Turkey Shirt Tutorial

Supply list:
shirt or fabric of choice
Exacto Knife
cutting mat

freezer paper (found in the aisle with the plastic wrap and foil)

fabric paint or acrylic paint with textile medium

sponge paint brushes 

small fine tip paint brush (for touching up)

iron

ironing board

hair dryer

printed paper of your design (turkey in our case)

Note:  Shannon uses fabric paint as she loves the soft feel of the paint.  Lesli and I use cheap acrylic paint mixed with textile medium.  Fabric paint can be expensive and I am cheap.  I buy the large acrylic paint (Apple Barrel) which is usually under $2.  Then I head over to Hobby Lobby or Joann's (coupons in hand) and buy Textile Medium.  Follow the directions on the fabric medium and let the shirt dry 24 hours before washing (learn from my mistake).

Directions:

1.  Pick your design and print it out on paper.  This needs to be black and white (don't waste your color ink) and dark enough to trace through the freezer paper.  Here is our print out:

Shannon and I both have a Silhouette (love it!) so we bought the little turkey image.  It printed out in the pieces that is why the image is broken up.

2. Cut a piece of freezer paper that is larger than your printed area.  Cover your printed page with the freezer paper, wax side down.  Trace the main turkey body. Make two of these. On two new pieces of freezer paper, trace the body with the eyes, nose, and gobble gobble (what is the actual term?).  Make two of these.   

3.  Cut out more freezer paper and trace the body and feathers behind (place where you see fit).  Make two of these.

For every shirt you want to make, you need to make two tracings of the body with face on it,  two tracings of the body and feathers and one of the plain body.  It is quite a bit of tracing but you will thank yourself if you do it all to begin with.

4.  Using your Exacto knife, cut out the eyes and the gobble gobble.  Don't lose the cut out pieces (put them to the side). Then on a scrap piece of freezer paper, trace the nose and cut it out.  (Keep the inside of the nose.

5. Iron your shirt.  Cut out a piece of freezer paper that will cover more than the turkey image on your shirt.  Place wax side up and slide it inside the shirt.  Iron the front of your shirt so that the freezer paper bonds to the inside of your shirt.  This creates a barrier so that the paint doesn't bleed through.

6.  Turn off the steam on your iron and put it on the highest setting. Take the piece of freezer paper that you cut out the eyes and gobble gobble and position it centered on your shirt. (If you plan to put a name under the turkey, leave room for it).  Wax side should be down.  Press the freezer paper down with the iron, making sure the paper is fully adhered to the shirt.

7.  Now using your fabric paint or acrylic paint mixed with textile medium and a sponge paint brush, paint in the eyes and gobble gobble.  Be careful not to overlap the paint.  Use the hair dryer to dry the paint.  Take off the freezer paper once the paint is dry.  Using your scrap freezer paper with the nose cut out, iron it on the shirt (covering up the eyes and gobble gobble) and paint.  Then dry with the hair dryer and take off freezer paper.

8.  Using the Exacto Knife, cut out the turkey body from the freezer paper. (See picture).

9.  Using the freezer paper with the body cut out, iron it to the shirt like before.  Then take your eyes, nose and gobble gobble that you cut out and place them over the painted portion.  Then iron them on as well.
***Sorry I can't find the original pictures from here till the final pictures. ***

10.  Paint the body of the turkey brown.  Use the hair dryer to dry the paint.  Take off the freezer paper.  Use your Exacto knife to peel up the eyes, nose and gobble gobble paper.  Touch up any overlaps now with a small paint brush if needed.

11.  Using your Exacto knife, cut out the top and far side feathers from one sheet of freezer paper.   Iron onto your shirt, paying close attention to lining up the turkey.  Paint the feathers the color of your choosing.  Dry with a hair dryer and take off the freezer paper.

12.  On your other freezer paper sheet, cut out the two remaining feathers and iron the sheet on your turkey.  Paint the remaining feathers, dry with hair dryer and take off freezer paper.

 14.  I made three shirts.  Two were yellow for the boys since I couldn't find white long sleeved shirts anywhere.  I had a white onesie for my daughter.

15.  Shannon wanted to add her girls' names to her shirt.  I am too cheap and want to get multiple uses out of the shirts.  My daughter now has a turkey shirt for when she is 2 and 4!  To add a name, trace the printed name on freezer paper, use your knife to cut out the letters (or have your silhouette cut it out).  Iron on the name portion under your turkey.  Make sure to iron in the inner parts of the letters (example:  the letter "e" if you don't put the half moon shape back in, the e will be filled in). Paint, dry, peel off freezer paper.  Here are pictures of Shannon's shirts: (I love the added touch of gluing on a bow!)

Thanks to Shannon for crafting with me and for the fun we have while doing it!  (Happy Birthday as well, Shannon!)

I hope you have fun making your own shirts and that our tutorial helps you in the process.  Start with a simple design (of one color) and go from there.  More freezer paper shirts coming up for Christmas!

Freezer Paper Stenciled Onesies-A Great Baby Gift

The baby boom continues.  I have five sweet girls, that have just had babies, or are about to have babies.  I've been very busy making baby gifts for them. I had every intention of making a bundle of five gifts.  These five gifts would include the adorable Fancy Burp Cloths and Dressed Up Wipe Cases, but I just never got that far and I thought the moms could use the gifts before their babies are high school graduates.  I did make them each a Birth Announcement Sign, a Please Knock Sign, and a Freezer Paper Stenciled Onesie.

Here are the gifts I made for sweet Lindsey and her son, Micah.

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Freezer Paper Stenciled Birthday Shirts

A few weeks ago, I sent this feature on Freezer Paper Stencil T-shirts to my friend over at Sarahndipities.  Sarah just had her fifth child and needed some guest posts while she was recovering.  I was more than happy to help her out and hopefully make some new friends for our blog.  Welcome to any new followers from Sarahndipities.  Our followers should check out her blog as well.  She has super cute crafts and crochet items!

Today, I will be sharing a tutorial for a Freezer Paper Stencil T-shirts.

Two of my children are having birthdays coming up.  Since I learned how to do freezer paper stenciling, I love to make personalized shirts for my kids.  They love showing off their age and/or their name and it is much cheaper than embroidery! Here is a picture of what I will be teaching you to make.

Needed Supplies:

• A T-shirt
• Fabric paint
• Foam paint brushes
• Freezer paper (found in the plastic wrap/foil aisle of any grocery store)
• Exacto knife
• Self-healing cutting mat
• Iron
• Pencil to trace number and circle
• Printed number and circle in your choice of font (I made a circle with the draw feature in Word).

Shannon and I both have a Silhouette and we love it!  Unfortunately, not everyone has a Silhouette, so I want to give you the tutorial for either way.  You can easily cut your letters on freezer paper using the Silhouette as well.  Shannon has done this many times and suggests selecting "Vellum" speed 3, thickness 25.  Make sure to use a mat that has plenty of stickiness left to it.  Rub the freezer paper down well to avoid any bubbles, which could cause the paper to tear.

If you don't have a Silhouette, here is the tutorial for you!

1.  Print off your number and circle or any design that you want to use.  Cut a piece of freezer paper larger than the size of your design.  With the waxy side down, trace your number or design.  

 2.  Here are all my designs ready to be cut out.  If you make the freezer paper too small don't worry, you can add more freezer paper to the shirt so that you don't get paint where it shouldn't go.    Also, don't stress if your tracing isn't perfect.  You can fix that when you cut it out.

3.  Now take your exacto knife and cut out the number and the circle.  Notice that I will need to add more paper to the five as I didn't center my 5 appropriately.

Here are the two designs I was working on.

I won't need the interior of the circle.  I am keeping this though as you never know what you might want to put a 5 on, right?

4.  Heat up your iron to the cotton setting.  Turn off any steam settings. Iron your t-shirt.  Then cut out a large piece of freezer paper that will fit the inside of your t-shirt. You want this piece to cover the entire inside so that you don't have paint bleed through.  Place the freezer paper waxy side up and iron your t-shirt again.  This will help the freezer paper to adhere to the inside.

5. Grab your circle.  Center the circle in the middle of the t-shirt.  Iron it down making sure it is flat and without any bubbles.  Then center the freezer paper with your number and iron it down too.

 I cut another strip of freezer paper as my one side was thin and I didn't want paint to bleed off the edge.

 Here is the shirt ready to add paint.

This is how your circle should look if you gave yourself plenty of space on both sides.  I did it right for the #3 shirt.

6.  Use a foam brush and fabric paint to paint your design.  Make sure not to use too much paint as it might cause the freezer paper to bubble and paint to bleed underneath.  Try to go with the lines of the shirt as well, not against the lines.  White paint is takes more than one coat to show up properly.  Most other colors can get away with one or two light coats. I did three coats for this design.  You can use a hair dryer to speed up the process if you get impatient between coats.  Just make sure that the first coat is completely dry before painting the second coat.

 After first coat of paint.

After second coat of paint.

After third coat of paint.  Notice the number has almost disappeared.

7. Again, allow the paint to fully dry.  Learn from my mistake on a previous project and let the paint dry for at least 24 hours before you machine wash.

8.  Peel off the freezer paper.  If you have any difficulty, use your exacto knife to get under the freezer paper.  You won't hurt the paint that is attached to the shirt.  Here are the finished shirts.

My little man Ryan loved his shirt and wore it proudly the day of his birthday.  He will wear it many more times throughout the year.  You can machine wash and dry without any problems.  Here is Ryan showing off his #5 shirt.  The second picture is of my little man Evan who turned 3 yesterday.  This was perfect timing to share the tutorial with everyone!

Shannon and I have made many gifts and other projects using freezer paper.  If you would like to see more, click here. Freezer paper stencils are fantastic and let you make inexpensive personalized gifts.  If you have any questions, please let me know!

Happy Crafting!

Camp Shirts and Totes

Our family had "Bear Camp" this summer in Big Canoe, GA.

For Bear Camp, I made my parents, my brother, and my daughters t-shirts.

I made these shirts using the freezer paper stencilling method.

First, I designed the image on my Silhouette and cut it out on freezer paper.  If you don't have a Silhouette, you can still do this. It may take longer but Jill and I have done it many times. All you do is print the image on your printer.  Then, trace it on the freezer paper, then use an exacto knife to cut it out.

You iron the freezer paper stencil onto the item you're stencilling.  You also put a piece of freezer paper on the inside of the item.  This does two things: it helps adhere the first piece of freezer paper to the item and it provides a protective barrier to keep the paint from leaking through.

I used three colors for this shirt. It was very easy to do one color at a time. I always use fabric paint for these projects. I know many people don't and are still pleased with the results. I find the fabric paint to be durable, soft, and it doesn't crack. It just works well and when I find something that works well, I stick with it.

All the painting is done.

The paint is dry and I removed the main part of the freezer paper. You can see the letter and number insides are still in place in this picture. Tweezers and/or the exacto knife make it easy to remove these.

Done!

Mariella's Tote

I also made tote bags with the same image. I followed the exact directions above. The only other thing I did was sew a ribbon to the top of the plain canvas bag.  This just added a touch of fanciness. The canvas bags were used to hold the girls camp projects and are a great camp souvenir.

Here they are at home with their camp bags!

Monogrammed Tote

I have an inexpensive gift idea for you that will make a big impression.  Last year I made these totes as gifts for some friends.  This year, I wanted to make them for Ryan's teachers as an end of the year gift.  If you haven't noticed, I think Ryan's teachers are two very special loving ladies who took great care of my little man this year.

I'll give you the full tutorial, but first I wanted to show you the finished product with the gift I put inside. (I'll give you the clipboard tutorial another day).

Here is what you will need:

• A tote bag (you can get these in a three pack at most craft stores)
• Decorative ribbon for top of tote
• Apple Barrel paint (cheapest at Walmart)- in black for small letters and matching color of ribbon
• Textile Medium (to make it washable)
• Foam paint brushes
• Freezer paper (found in the plastic wrap/foil aisle of any grocery store)
• Exacto knife
• Self-healing cutting mat
• Iron
• Pencil to trace letters
• Printed letters in your choice of font (I used Annabel Script 400pt for Large letter and 200pt for small letter)
• sewing machine or needle and thread

I am going to give you the tutorial for all those of you who don't have a Silhouette, but you can easily cut your letters on freezer paper using the Silhouette as well.  Shannon has done this many times and suggests selecting "Vellum" speed 3, thickness 25.  Make sure to use a mat that has plenty of stickiness left to it.  Rub the freezer paper down well to avoid any bubbles, which could cause the paper to tear.

If you don't have a Silhouette, here is the tutorial for you!

1.  Print off your letters or any design that you want to use.  Cut a piece of freezer paper larger than the  size of your letters.  With the waxy side down, trace your letters or design.  A typical monogram is your three initials.  The first initial goes to the left, your second initial goes to the right and your last initial is the large one in the middle.

 2.  Here are all my letters ready to be cut out.  If you make the freezer paper too small don't worry, you can add more freezer paper to the shirt so that you don't get paint where it shouldn't go.

3.  Now take your exacto knife and cut out your letter.  Make sure to keep any pieces that make up the letter (see my D and L as examples-they have little portions that will need to go back in).

4.  Measure the rim of your tote bag with your ribbon and add about 3 inches to overlap the ribbon when you sew it on.

5. Heat up your iron to the highest or cotton setting.  Turn off any steam settings. Iron your tote bag.  Then cut out a large piece of freezer paper that will fit the inside of your tote bag. You want this piece to cover the entire inside so that you don't have paint bleed through.  Place the freezer paper waxy side up and iron your tote again.  This will help the freezer paper to adhere to the inside.

6.  Take your ribbon and put it at the top of your tote.  You are using to help gauge where to put your letters or design.  Center the freezer paper of your large letter in the middle of the tote bag.  Iron it down making sure it is flat and without any bubbles.  Then center the freezer paper with your smaller letters to the left and right, iron down too.

7.  If you use fabric paint, then you can go ahead and paint away.  If you are using acrylic paint, you need to add textile medium according to the directions on the bottle and mix it.  This makes the acrylic paint safe to machine wash.  You can get many more uses of your acrylic paint by doing this as it is much less expensive than fabric paint.

8.  Using a foam brush for each color, paint your letters.  Make sure not to use too much paint as it might cause the freezer paper to bubble and paint to bleed underneath.  I painted the large letter to match my coordinating ribbon and the small letters in black.  I did two light coats on each letter.  You can use a hair dryer to speed up the process if you get impatient.  Just make sure that the first coat is completely dry before painting the second coat.

 9.  Peel off the freezer paper.  If you have any difficulty, use your exacto knife to get under the freezer paper.

10.  Using your sewing machine or just needle and thread, sew your ribbon to the top of the tote.  I put my seam in the back and tucked the ribbon underneath for a clean look.

Ta Da!  Finished tote bags that are personalized and special for the recipient.   Ryan's teachers loved these and the clipboard that I included inside (the tutorial is coming soon).

Freezer paper stencils are fantastic and let you make inexpensive personalized gifts.  If you have any questions, please let me know!