You will need several tools for this project:
[x] A blank t-shirt (we're using a plain black t-shirt) |
[x] an x-acto knife with a sharp blade |
As far as choosing a stock to use for cutting out of, its up to you. I've printed on shirts using cardstock, overhead acetate transparency sheets, laminated sheets of plastic, freezer paper, cereal box cardboard, foam board, etc... For a two-color design, i would recommend using acetate sheets(you can buy them from copy centers as "binding covers" or you can get them from office supply stores as "overhead projector sheets". basically glue or tape your design to the sheet and cut right through it. make sure youve got either a cutting board or a decent amount of newspaper under your cutting area so you dont cut up your kitchen table. being able to see through the stencil definately helps when trying to line up the design. You can also use Freezer Paper which generally gets the best print, but you cant see through it and you need to iron that down. The disadvantage of using freezer paper/the iron in this method is you may accidentily iron over wet registration marks and get paint on parts of the shirt you dont want to.
Print out your three designs, make sure you printed them out to the same size. If adjusting the size manually, like in paint, just make sure you copy or print them out the exact same way, with the exact same resize percentage. Cut out both your designs, including the little x's on the top left and right of the design, these are the registration marks. do your very best to cut these out the best you can because these are the x's you're going to line up to make sure the design is printed correctly.
*When printing multi-color designs, it is very important to have the shirt stay straight the entire time. If the shirt moves, the image jumps and wont line up correctly. I purchased an old oversized cutting board from a thrift shop. I like to spray the one side of the board down with spray adhesive (not too much so it doesnt come off on the shirt, and lay the shirt on the board and flatten it out so its basically glued onto the board. Most adhesive is water soluable so even if there is glue on the inside of the shirt, it probably would come off in the wash.
Take your first stencil and place it on the shirt where you want it to go. Rule of thumb is to place the top of the design 4 fingers down from the edge of the collar.
Once you have your placement down for where you will be printing the design, you need to put down some safety tape on the shirt to make sure you dont print those little x's because they're not actually apart of the design. You can put down a few strips of masking tape on the shirt under where the x's are being placed. make sure you dont put any tape under other areas of the shirt where the actual stencil needs to go.
Once you have your placement and your safety tape down, I would suggest either very very lightly spraying down the underside of your first stencil, or simply taping down the stencil to make sure it wont move. I dont like to use either but instead I have a ruler that I use to weigh down the stencil during more difficult areas of printing so there arent any leaks. You do risk the possibility of pulling the shirt up and jumping your later prints if you use too much adhesive or if you take your tape off too violently. We're dealing with only a couple ounces of cloth here, so be gentle. If you're using Freezer Paper, you dont really have to worry about spraying the underside of your design or taping it because you're ironing your stencil down.
Take the first color you're looking to print, we're printing white, and pour some into your paint tray. (or makeshift paint tray - i used empty cardboard boxes before getting my trim kit which came with its own plastic tray) Use a little paint at first, and roll your roller through it, trying to cover as much of your roller as you can, not just a bit here and there. A good consistancy is reached when you're running your roller through the paint and you begin to hear a slight sticking/slapping noise of the paint bubbles on the roller. Now run your roller over your design, apply enough pressure with the roller to make a stain on the shirt. you can always apply more paint later so dont worry about using too much too fast. cover every section of your design including the x's, and make sure you dont print outside your print area onto sections of the shirt you dont want paint on. If you're done covering your design, glance over your printed area and see if some areas are more opaque than others. You can always wait for the paint to dry and then apply another layer of paint to get a more opaque print. If you use freezer paper, you can wait for the paint to dry, and reiron the stencil down to the shirt. Once you're done, take off your stencil gently and slowly. There is no rush. Make sure you dont pull the shirt off your cutting board or whatever its glued to because you can jump the design.
Wait for your design to dry to the touch. If you're impatient or in a rush, you could blow dry the paint dry. If certain areas aren't dry to the touch, they can come off when you print later layers. When your print is dry, take your second stencil and line up your little x's (registration marks) and if you have a clear acetate stencil, you can see where the new layer will be printed. This design is quite trapped, so do your very best to line it up the best you can. If you think you need to move the stencil or the shirt around to make it line up better, do so accordingly. As for placing your second layer down, you can either tape it or lightly glue it. taping works for keeping the stencil in one place but gluing works better for keeping all areas of the stencil down on the shirt so there isnt much room for leaks. If you're using the freezer paper method, you dont have to worry about that so much, but know that the paper doesnt adhere to existing paint on a shirt, only onto the fabric itself.
Take the second color you're looking to print, we're printing yellow, and follow the same methods printing your design as you did with the first layer. Use a different roller of course. If you only have one roller, know that trying to wash out one and then print another doesnt really work because these things take a long time to dry. They're generally hard to rinse out too. You dont have to worry about printing the x's this time over, just make sure you over all the areas of the design that you need to and you dont print in areas you dont want to print. If you print the x's the second time, you may run the risk of blotching up your registration marks and then the third layer wont line up so well.
Once youre done printing your second layer, take off your second layer as gently as you did the first, because you still have another layer to print. You have to wait again for the design to dry to the touch. If there are any sections of your print that need touching up, id suggest doing so by either dipping your x-acto blade in paint and working it like a paintbrush, or just using a fine tip paintbrush. Again, if you're in a rush, you can always blowdry your area to be dry to the touch.
Tape or lightly glue down your third layer. All three layers are tightly registered, so line up this layer as well as you did your second. Align your third layer, and either glue it down or tape it down in place
Follow the same instructions as you did for the second layer to print the third. Use another roller for the third and final yellow print. Take your time again, dont use too much pressure because you dont want this layer to blotch up on you. It doesnt matter if you print over the registration marks because you're just going to be throwing the safety tape out soon anyway. If the yellow looks dark on the shirt, its because its going on black, so you can always wait for the paint to dry and add an outer layer of yellow to try and get a brighter print.
Remove your third and final stencil from your shirt. You dont have to worry about taking it off too roughly because you have no other layers to print, just watch out for wet paint.
Now you can take off your safety tape and wait for your shirt to dry. Once its all dry, you can put a piece of paper over my design and iron out the top of my finished stencil just to flatten it out. I do surface of the print through a piece of paper and later turn the shirt inside out and iron the inside of the design as well.
I hope your stamp print came out good. If it didnt, save the shirt because you can always use it later for test prints or whatever else. If you have pictures of your finished prints and you want to send them in, use the suggestion box form, and I'll post them on this page.