When I see the same project type over and over again on all of the inspiration blogs I read (see new list in our right-hand navigator), I figure there must be something really cool about the project. And the results I’ve seen using freezer paper to stencil images have been quite inspired and fun! So, I had to try this one out for myself. Please come along on a freezer paper newbie’s journey.

First step, buy some freezer paper. This was easy. I went to the local grocery store and picked up a large roll off the shelf. I looked at the side of the box and was shocked to find crafting ideas listed right there on the package! This makes me wonder how many other craft ideas are lurking in the aisles between the boxes of macaroni and cheese and the Goldfish crackers? But I digress…

With freezer paper in hand, I head back to my craft room to get started. Hmmm…to stencil, one must first have an image that one wishes to stencil. Ah, Google! For my first foray into this crafting area, I decided to use a basic clip art image that I could find online. I wanted it to be simple but cute. At this point, I wasn’t even sure what I was going to stencil onto but decided to let the image dictate the receptacle. After browsing around for quite a while, I found an adorable owl shape with quite a bit of detail within the picture (Fig 1). I didn’t cut out all of the details the first time I tried this but the second time, I left in some of the eye detailing and the mouth.

Now, the hard part was done. I had found the image, cut it out and was ready to iron it onto something. I decided on a pillowcase because owls come out at night, you use a pillowcase at night… I slid one piece of blank freezer paper into the pillowcase to go behind my stencil. Then, I carefully ironed the stencil down making sure all of the edges adhered correctly (Fig 2).

After the ironing, I chose the fabric paint color I wanted to use and dabbed it over the stencil. Wow, that was pretty easy (Fig 3). One tip: if you haven’t figured it out already, you can only use your stencil once. So, make sure you have a copy of your original image if you want to do it again. And I had to do it again because the first time, I used fabric paint that was way too thin so it ended up running a lot underneath my stencil and didn’t look nearly as cute as the second time I did it (Fig 4). The second time, I used regular acrylic paint and then added some textile medium to it. Much better!

I waited for the image to dry and then I set the paint with another ironing session. The hardest part of this project was actually finding my iron! I use it more to craft than I do for clothes. And there it was! My adorable owl on the pillowcase (at least the second try) that I will not be hiding from guests to my home (Fig 5). I am already wondering what else I can stencil and next time, I will make my own design to try out. Check back here for some Chica & Jo downloadable stencils as I experiment with more images. I think I will also try using some of my Cricut cartridges to cut some images. The shadow setting would be perfect for an outline to stencil!

So, hurry to the store and jump on this freezer paper stenciling bandwagon. It is so much fun and quite addicting!