This week’s Unplugged Challenge theme was Trees. I had been wanting to try the Freezer Paper Stencil style shirts for awhile now and leaves seemed like a fun inspiration for the design. So this week we made freezer paper stencil leaf shirts.
Freezer Paper Stencil Leaf Shirts Materials
- cotton t-shirt (pre-washed)
- leaves or other design inspiration
- freezer paper
- scissors
- iron and ironing board
- fabric paint
- stencil brush
- piece of cardboard
Freezer Paper Stencil Leaf Shirts Directions
We started by going on a leaf scavenger hunt. Each of the kids gathered 5 leaves with completely different shapes. Once we had all our leaves we compared their shapes and colors. They each picked one leaf for their shirt design.
For a short cut, I cut the freezer paper into 8.5×11 inch sheets to fit in our printer. Then we photo copied each leaf onto a sheet of freezer paper. You could just trace the leaf pattern onto the paper. Make sure you copy the pattern onto the paper side of the freezer paper.
I cut out the shapes and ironed them on the tee shirts. You want to cut away the center of the shape and be sure to iron wax side down.
I helped each of the kids stencil their shirt. We used a sponge style stencil brush and it was not the best for the project. I will try something else in the future. It left a bubble like texture in the paint. But in general the kids and I were pretty happy with our results. (Remember to put a piece of card board inside the shirt so the paint doesn’t bleed through).
A couple of days later the kids modeled their new shirts outside under the trees. Here they are trying to do a yoga ‘Tree Pose.’ Very cute!
