Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Car Love Shirt - Distressed Freezer Paper Stencilling

I have a love-hate relationship with holiday clothes...especially holidays like Halloween, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc...  It's fun for the kids to have something to special to wear, but it seems like such a waste to have an outfit that they can only wear for a few weeks...not that it's stopped my kids from wearing Halloween shirts all year...I'm just sayin'.

So I made Little Brother this Valentine's shirt...that he can wear all year.


Recently I saw this post from Jane on Out of the Crayon Box.  It's a post from way before I started reading blogs, so it's new to me, and I just loved the design of the patterns.  So I was laying awake that night and somehow all the ideas floating around in my head melded into this.

I love it...and more importantly Little Brother loves it.  (If you've read this blog before, you've probably seen Little Brother's dresser, sheetsfabric roads, and parking lots and know how much he loves anything with wheels.)

Just goes to show, boys can wear hearts to. 
I think the cars and the simplicity of pattern came together well, and the distressed look gives it just the right touch.  After the gyrocopter shirt troubles, I wanted to give regular acrylic paint one last try...and it worked pretty well for this project.

Here's what you'll need to make your own:
  • The patterns, given at the bottom of this post.
  • Freezer Paper (found at most grocery stores)
  • Fabric paint or Acrylic Craft Paint
  • A piece of scrap cardstock or cardboard
  • Scissors and/or a razor blade
  • And of course the shirt or other item of clothing to embellish
Directions:
Cut your freezer paper down to size to fit through your paper.  8 1/2 x 11 will work for printing the heart.  You'll need a piece that is 8 1/2 by 14 or so for printing the cars.

Then cut out your freezer paper stencil.  Not all the cars will fit, so choose the ones you like the best.  I used a mix of the different cars available.  I used a good pair of scissors for the outside of the cars and a razor blade for the inside details.  Center the heart on your shirt, choose which cars you want to use and line them up.  Make sure the SHINY SIDE of your freezer paper is DOWN.  Double check all the edges to make sure they're sealed well to the shirt.  (Otherwise paint will get under them.)

Put a piece of cardboard or cardstock inside the shirt, under your design to prevent paint from bleeding through to the back.  Use a stiff brush to blot the paint onto the shirt.  You don't want to brush it on because then paint can get under the edges of the freezer paper.  Most people will tell you to use fabric paint.  I used regular acrylic craft paint here because I wanted a slightly distressed look...and I didn't have fabric paint.   Acrylic paint will be permanent, but gives a different finished look.  If you're using acrylic paint, make sure you don't put it on too thick and that it's an even coat.  (I let Little Brother help with the painting...which isn't the best way to get an even coat, but he was really excited about the design.)

Wait for the paint to completely dry...(Okay I cheated a little.  You can see by that shine mine wasn't all the way dry...but it was dry next to all the freezer paper edges.)

and remove the freezer paper.  (Oops, forgot to pull off one of the wheels before snapping this pic.)

Wash in the washing machine to loosen up the fabric and remove the paint smell.

And wear!

And read some book (about cars of course) in it.


And Little Brother was excited to find this awesome car at Goodwill...and I was excited it was only $1.  Now we just have to find the right way to incorporate it into his room.

Now for the pattern itself.  I found some cute car sillouhettes here.  I used Picnik to edit them and get black and white line drawings instead.  (Because I didn't want to use all that colored ink printing them out.)  I used the heart shape from here and enlarged it.

Click here for the printable pattern for the Car Love HEART.

48 comments:

  1. I love the look the acrilic paint gave, looks really cool. I agree with the whole holiday shirts thing. (though my kids also wear them year round)

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  2. This looks great Polly! And it looks like he LOVES it! Double score. :)

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  3. This is a great idea! I will have to use it sometime soon!

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  4. Very impressive! I like the idea of going with the distressed look for boys!

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  5. Cute, cute, cute. What a great shirt for a car-guy.

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  6. OOOOOooooooh, I love your creativity. The kids are lucky to have you as their mommy! I hope you and your kiddos are doing well! We send our love! I have a bunch of material from some crib bumpers that I was wondering if you could help me do something with it. Call me

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  7. Love it! Thank you for linking up to http://tinyurl.com/upcycled31 if you have any more recycled/upcycled projects please link them up and let your friends know. I am trying to reach 100 upcycled projects this week and I would really appreciate you help!

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  8. This is so cute!! Thanks for sharing!

    http://taidyeoriginal.blogspot.com

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  9. This is awesome! My little guy would LOVE LOVE this. The colors you used are perfect too!

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  10. This is awesome. My little guy would go bonkers over the design! Awesome! :)

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  11. So so cute!! My two boys both love cars - what a great idea!!

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  12. Wow. This looks great. I am hosting a giveaway on my blog. Would love for you to stop by!

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  13. Oh wow. That is terribly cute and very effective! Love the simplicity if your technique!

    Thanks for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!!

    Maggy

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  14. oh I love those cars!! I think my Jojo would like a shirt like that!! Thanks so much for including the stencil too!!

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  15. That turned out great! I love holiday shirts!

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  16. Fabulous idea! I love that it is original and saves money! Kerri

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  17. I have seen so many cute shirts done with freezer paper stenciling! I love this, and it's nice to see a cute craft for mommy's of boys! I featured this on my friday favorites!
    http://lilbitofus.blogspot.com/2011/02/friday-favorites.html

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  18. I love this soooo much!!!I am your newest follower and hope that you will come be a follower at my blog!!! brooke
    brookedouglass@yahoo.com
    Girl Boy Girl Inspired

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  19. i've never tried freezer paper stenciling but my son just went bananas over this shirt-his favorite thing is cars! so cute!

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  20. This is totally adorable! I get what you mean about holiday shirts...but when they only cost $3 at Walmart plus whatever I decide to sew on I'm usually okay with them only wearing htem a few times:)

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  21. So cute - the boys always get left out of the fun for Valentine's Day so I love this tutorial!! Thanks for sharing the templates!

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  22. LOVE this!! Your little boy is darling too. I’d love for you to link it up at I Heart Nap Time

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  23. Here is my!!! Thank you for such a cute idea
    http://www.couturiermommy.com/2011/02/i-heart-trucks.html

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  24. Super cute! I love the colors and you have a sweet little model:)

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  25. This is adorable! I can't wait to try it- I have 2 boys. I love that it can be worn all year- not just February!
    Erica at http://bisforboycreations.blogspot.com/

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  26. This is so neat! I'm going to try this maybe today. I've never used the freezer paper for ironing on...we'll see if I can be as crafty lol.

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  27. This is great! I featured it today on Today's Top 20! I'd love for you to stop by!

    Amanda
    www.todaystoptwenty.blogspot.com

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  28. Thanks for a fantastic idea. I made one for my little guy but used trains instead of cars...

    You can see it here- www.craftyave.blogspot.com

    Crystal

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  29. Thanks for the great idea. I made my little guy one but used trains instead of cars-- he loves it :)

    You can find it here,
    www.craftyave.blogspot.com

    Crystal

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  30. I love how simple this looks! Thanks for the ideas

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  31. That is so adorable! And gives me so many ideas! I would love for you to come link up with me as well if you haven't stopped by yet! Best link each month gets prizes!

    http://www.thesaturdaymorningsblog.com/2011/02/strut-your-stuff-for-february-round-2.html

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  32. I made one using your pattern. It turned out so cute! Thanks- my son loves it! http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentine-outfits.html

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  33. I did my first stencil today, thanks for the great tutorial! I don't have a blog (no time since I'm doing all the great crafts you ladies show!) but here is a link to my facebook :) Thanks, Polly!!!

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1913602799152&set=a.1776552172972.2102583.1214389353&theater

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  34. What a cute t-shirt.

    Be sure to add the DIY Club button.

    Cheri

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  35. I love this idea and maybe I'll make a bunch of tshirts for my boy's birthday party as their favors! And a project for me and Henry in the meantime :) I love this! New follower :)

    Jamie @ hands on : as we grow

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  36. Hi, Polly! I'm admiring all your creative posts here so can you please share them with us at the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop? Hope to see you there at the party :)

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  37. Lovely post. Your kid is really a prince. Hope for his best.

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  38. You are so talented and dedicated and inspiring! Thank you for sharing another very helpful tutorial. :)
    Arrived via your Favorite Projects of 2011 post at TCB...cheers!

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  39. Such a absolutely wonderful design! its fantastic... I may just have to make something similar for my boys this valentines.

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  40. This is by far my favorite Valentine's Craft of the year!! Great job on this one... just posted on Craft Gossip! Keep crafting:)

    http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=5479

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  41. I made a negative version of the vehicles T shirt today - first time freezer paper stencilling, and really enjoyed it. Planning on making your others - thanks SO much for sharing :-)
    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150667988024924&set=a.427180524923.216852.704299923&type=3&theater

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  42. Thank you for the terrific tutorial! I have had my eye on this for awhile and finally got it done! You can check it out here:
    http://160.7.247.45/whichcraft/?p=1682

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  43. Thanks for this. I made the T shirt in reverse for my son and he LOVES it! Photo on my blog. FWIW, I did use fabric paint, and its ok on this T shirt, but it has really faded on others I have done :-(

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  44. I would like to thank you for the articles you are writing. The post is quite neat and every word is so simple that is easy to understand.

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  45. I love, love, love this shirt!! I am featuring on my blog!
    seemesew.blogspot.com

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  46. Fantastic! Thanks for all the details on the process.

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  47. I did always love to fabric roads whatever there occurs happening and also i like good result in short time like you have made simple design but really fanatic and eye catching as well.

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