Monday Made: Fantastic freezer-paper

You know how some couples dress up with identical T-shirts to show how "matching" they are as a pair?  I've always thought it was pretty sweet (except for one time where I spotted a couple wearing  pinky-poo coloured T-shirts, which I thought was really taking it too far!)... and I thought it'll be great if I could do similar T-shirts for Junior J and the hubby for Father's Day.  However, I didn't want them to be too matchy-matchy, and those I found being sold online were not to my liking... So...

I decided I'd try to design my own T-shirt.  Having read a post over at Pink Elephants and Lemonade about freezer paper stenciling, I decided that it'll be just the thing to do... If you're wondering what on earth is freezer paper, its basically paper that has one side that's waxy.  As the name suggests, it used to be used for wrapping food for storage in the freezer, but now its properties lend itself to numerous craft projects like applique and quilting.  However, popular as the paper is with crafters, I had great difficulty finding it!  Out of desperation I emailed a crafty bloggy pal, and she was nice enough to suggest some places that I could find it, and even offered to pass me some (Thank you!).  Thankfully, I managed to find the Reynolds version at Cold Storage (Parkway Parade), nestled on the shelf next to the ziplock bags. :) 

I won't go into the details since there are loads of tutorials out there (here's a good one, via Pink Elephants).  I managed to buy plain T-shirts from Giordano and Mothercare without the hubby suspecting I was up to something, and sat down to do the drawing, cutting and stenciling when he was at work one afternoon.  The cutting and the pasting of the little bits of paper was a little tricky, but once the stencil was on it was really easy peasy. And TADA!  Here's the finished product:

Can you read what it says?  :)  I stuffed it in the hubby's bag on Friday, since he was on call on Saturday and was meeting me straight at church the next day.  Then I messaged him to look in his bag for the shirt, and to wear it on Sunday morning!

Here are my two favorite boys examining their new shirts:

And going by the looks on their faces, I think they quite like them!

(Hubby looks tired since he was post call.  Though Junior J is smiling here, he threw up all over his T-shirt during lunch.  I washed and dried it but he then dribbled some food on it again during dinner.  And to top it off, he smeared some chocolate cake that he was eating on his Papa's one!  SIGH...)

Some tips if you would like to try this out:

1. You can buy freezer paper over at Cold Storage, and its available in rolls (like those for aluminum foil) at the section stocking ziplocks.  One roll will last you for a long time, and you can actually peel off your stencil and reuse it a few times before it loses its stickness (great if you need to print multiple copies of the same design!).  Also, it means that you can peel off and reposition your stencil if you didn't place it properly the first time.

2. Get a good paintbrush for painting.  I used a el-cheapo paintbrush and it started balding midway through painting, so it left hairs in my design!  Thankfully the design was meant to look a little uneven, so the hairs were not noticeable.

3. Place a sheet of freezer paper underneath the section you are painting, waxy side up, to prevent seepage of paint.

4. This is a kid-friendly activity, however, you'd probably want to do the cutting and ironing, and let your kids try the painting.  You might want to stencil something they've drawn!  However, do caution them to be gentle when painting, since if you use forceful brushstrokes you might end up dislodging some of the little bits of freezer paper.

5. Get a good craft knife to cut out the design.  I only had a wonky penknife that kept threatening to snap, so the edges were a little unfinished looking (it was fine for this design, but not if you are intending to do a detailed, complex pattern!).

Oh!  And to go with the whole theme, I did this scrapbook layout for the hubby:

The hubby only can put up stuff using pushpins at work (no magnetic boards in the office), so I got to trying using my Friskars Sea Pearls punch on the edges, in order to give him some holes for putting up the piece (I was shuddering at the thought of him randomly sticking pins into the paper!).

I tried really hard to keep the whole piece manly, by sticking to more masculine colours and using leaf designs, but I couldn't resist adding a whole load of flowers!  And I had fun distressing the journalling area as well as the white parts of the flowers. :)

So here's the full piece:

Hope all fathers had a great Father's Day! :)  Have a great week ahead!