Super Easy/Kid Friendly Printing

POSTED BY Lee Meredith, 11 August 2008

It's approaching the end of summertime, and if you have kids you might be trying to come up with more projects to entertain them with; or if you have young cousins/nieces/nephews/etc maybe their parents would love you to spend an afternoon crafting with them, yeah?  I love making freezer paper stencils, but they require the use of an exacto knife, so when I was asked to do the project with eleven young girls at a crafty day camp, I had to figure out some alternate stencil-making techniques.

I first saw this basic idea on the Craft blog, when they pointed out all buttoned up's hole punch printing, but I think kids would be bored with one small circle size.  The idea is to use craft punches in general, though all I had in my personal craft stash were three different size circle punches.  If you want to make this project more exciting, for kids or for yourself, get a collection of different shaped craft punches (check out the scrapbooking section of the craft shop).  Ok, tutorial time!

You'll need:  freezer paper (not wax paper, it must be freezer paper, which has wax only on one side), punches, fabric paint (regular acrylic paint will work but will probably crack and look bad after a washing or two), paintbrush, an iron, and something to print on.  Cut a piece of freezer paper narrow enough to be able to reach the punch to almost the middle, so you'll be able to fill the paper will punches.  This method of stenciling works great for trims, since you're limited with width but not length.

Punch punch punch and punch some more!  Punch with the largest shapes first, then you can reach into those shapes with the smaller punches for more coverage.

When you're done punching, place the stencil (wax-side down!) where you want to print and iron it onto your fabric. 

Now paint!  Fill in all the holes, being careful not to paint outside the stencil.  It's best to dab the brush, up and down, not paint side to side, to avoid getting paint under the stencil.  Even though it's ironed on, it might not be that tight around the holes, paint can still get under.  Use many colors if you want, or just one - or if you have different shapes, use a different color for each shape...

When it's all filled in, here's the best part, peel off the stencil and reveal the print!  Do this very carefully, you don't want to smudge!  If the paint job is more globby, let it dry for awhile first, but no need to wait for it to dry completely.

And, the finished print!