Freezer Paper Stenciling

nananananananananananananananana - RAINBOW

There are a mix of photos today, the one above is of when I did freezer paper stenciling with the bigger daycare kids, and the rest are of Ash's Nightmare Moon shirt for his friend's MLP birthday party. My hands got pretty covered helping the kids, which is why there aren't any in-progress photos of when they did it (hence photos of one of my own projects).

Project: Freezer paper stenciling on shirts
Inspiration Pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78531587228776429/
Page Pin is From: http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutorial-presidents-day-shirts-intermediate-freezer-paper-stenciling.html
Participants: Ash, Lavender, Peony, myself

Difficulty: Medium. Requires painting more or less in the lines (with an inch or two of forgiveness) for the kiddos, and requires tracing, cutting, ironing for the grown ups or big kids. I chose super easy images (Batman for Ash and Peony, and an arch/rainbow for Lavender) and kept the size to approx 4"x6".
Prep: 5-10 minutes per shirt, including the mid-way adult work like ironing.
Mess: About the same as any painting project, but I had the kids take off their shirts first since we were using fabric paint which is designed to adhere to fabric permanently. A sleeved smock would work too. I got messier than usual somehow...
Cleanup: There's the normal paint project clean up, we used brushes not fingers so there was minimal paint on fingers. Then there's a final ironing of the painted shirt after it's all dry.
Age Range: I'd keep this to ages 3 and up, maybe 2 if you can closely supervise. Fabric paint can be toxic if ingested, and paint brushes can be a little difficult for littles to manipulate.

Verdict: So.Much.Fun. The kids LOVED this project. I gave Ash and Peony three colors of their choice for their Batman symbols and they painted free form, blending and such. Lavender painted the rainbow inside the arch, and we discussed the color order, etc. The best part was the reveal when I carefully pulled off the stencil and all of a sudden THERE WAS AN AWESOME PICTURE. Seriously, for kids that are still learning how to stay inside lines and who get frustrated about it, having that stencil automatically give a nice, crisp line is so satisfying. (for grownups too. ahem)

I actually found this post directly from the MADE page (not Pinterest) a few years ago when I had time to regularly read blogs, and have done several freezer stenciling projects.

I gave myself an inch of surround, for kids I make it bigger

I love the reveal!