Zeeeebra! Contact Stencil Tee

I know this is old news, but I never got to try out freezer paper stenciling when it went a little viral in the blogging/crafty world. In Australia freezer paper is near impossible to find, and if you can find it, VERY expensive. I tried ironing glad-wrap between two sheets of baking paper a few years ago and that did NOT work very well.

Fast forward to now and I thought, why don't I just use contact paper?? duh. I'm sure there are many, many other people that came to this conclusion before me, but it was a new idea to me and I thought I was pretty clever!

So I put together a little tutorial for those of you that are a little bit behind like me :)

Contact Stenciling

Start by sketching up a picture of what you want to put on your tee.

I went for a zebra because it would only need two layers of stencilling and wasn't too detailed (plus my little one LOVES "africas" as she calls them!).

Trace your sketch onto a piece of contact. I did mine a little backwards and only drew the outline to start with. Cut out the main picture with a craft knife. On mine it was the outline of the zebras head.

Peel off the backing and stick the contact onto your tee.

Put some paper or cardboard in the tee to prevent the paint seeping through to the back. Paint in the first layer.

Go back to the piece of contact you cut out of your first stencil. This is when I drew in the stripes. Cut out all the details that you want on your next layer. On mine it was all the black stripes on the zebra.

Make sure you keep the bits you cut out that you want to stay white, like the nostrils on the zebra.

Once the first layer of paint is dry, stick down the next layer of your stencil, don't forget those little bits in the middle you want to keep the background colour, e.g the nostrils of the zebra (If you do forget to do this, you can always go back afterwards and paint the details back on individually. Then paint in the gaps between your contact.

Wait for the paint to dry completely.... (or not I peeled mine back when it was still slightly tacky because I couldn't wait!)

Peel off your stencil and voila! Contact stencil zebra!

This is when you can paint on any extra details that you either forgot or were just too small to cut out. I've painted in the white parts on the zebras eyes and added some pink detail in as well. Depending on the fabric paint you used, you may need to give it a quick iron to set it :)

I think I may have started something.....