Tired of your wardrobe and on a tight budget? Going back to school with nothing to wear? Well, you can create your own t-shirt design that looks professionally done and you can patent it once you’re rich and famous! With simple tools for stenciling, your designs can come to life and you can create limitless amounts of original t-shirts for less. No more buying $20 graphic tees at the Gap, Abercrombie…you’ll be much cooler than all those people.
We’re going to show you how to make a stencil out of contact paper. Contact paper is super cheap from any office supply store or online. Or you can ask to borrow some from your favorite librarian because I can guarantee you they have some. Covering books is an arduous task that uses a lot of contact paper (I know, I’ve been there) but also leaves odd-shaped scraps that are perfect for this project! So back to the t-shirts.
First off, your supplies:
Contact paper (see above) or shelf paper will work, too.
Fabric paint; available cheaply at your local craft store. Comes in oodles of colors and opacities. Knock yourself out.
Parts of a cardboard box. You probably have this around, but you’re going to need a side that will fit in between the t-shirt and another scrap to push around the paint evenly.
Of course, t-shirts. You can buy plain ones in whatever color you want. White ones are especially cheap in packages at discount stores. When I was decorating a t-shirt for a movie premiere with my friend, I bought a bunch (5 for $10) at Michael’s. That’s two dollars apiece. You could even get black or grey, whatever. You shouldn’t have a problem finding cheap, plain (preferably cotton) t-shirts.
Tools: Razor blade and a marker to draw with
That’s it. Pretty simple, right?
To make the stencil, draw something, anything you’d like to wear on a shirt, on the contact paper (use a big square of it). Something relatively simple and that will be easy to cut out. An image of some kind that has a thick edge will work. Whatever you can draw. And remember that you’re only going to be seeing the outline of it, so don’t draw anything on the inside of the design.
Once you’re done, cut it out using a razor blade (from a utility knife works fine) without removing it from the big square of contact paper. That’s the point of the stencil; cut around the wide edge of your image, on both the inside and the outside, and pull out the inside part (the remnants of your cutting) of the edge. Not the inside of the stencil, just the inside of the edge. Pull off the sticky back of the contact paper and place it on your shirt, centering the stencil to where you want it to be located on the shirt.
Before attempting to put the paint on it, put a piece of the cardboard between the front and the back of the shirt to prevent it from bleeding through. Now, apply a thick line of the paint to the contact paper only right above the stencil, spreading/dragging it evenly across it with a straight piece of the cardboard (not the one from the shirt, a different piece). Don’t apply too much pressure if you want to save paint. One layer should do the trick, but if you get a little spreading-happy and it doesn’t fully cover the stencil, feel free to apply two.
WAIT until it dries before trying to remove the contact paper. WAIT!!! If you pull it off when it’s wet, it’ll smear and you’ll have ruined a perfectly good t-shirt. After it fully dries (you can help it with a blow drier), slowly pull it off and the stencil design should show up on the t-shirt in the color of your choice. You can reuse the stencil if you use the same paint color, to avoid any tainting of the stencil with colors that don’t blend well. The edges might not be perfectly crisp, but this is the cheapest way to make a unique design. If you’re really nitpicky, you can outline the design on your tee with a fabric marker of the same color. Wear, wash, and repeat.
Washing tips- Wash in cold water to prevent the t-shirt from shrinking. If you don’t want the image to fade, I wouldn’t put it in the dryer to be safe.
From www.instructables.com. “Contact Paper Stencils” Posted by trebuchet03 Visited August 22 2007 Pictures with stencil design shown by trebuchet03