So when I was invited to participate in the blog tour in promotion of the new movie coming out (in theaters March 2nd. Visit the official site for the movie preview, pictures, downloads and more!) I couldn’t resist doing a project featuring those wonderful trees.

The Truffula Tree-Shirt!

This is a simple “Freezer Paper Stencil” project. Just print out the stencil I’m providing, and follow the directions below. Any color will work for your truffula poofs, I choose Tangerine here.  Click on any of the below images to see them larger or as a slideshow.  Click Here for the Stencil.

Supplies:

• Tshirt (I used black)
• Cutting Mat & razor knife
• Freezer Paper
• Fabric Paint (I used cream and tangerine on a black shirt)
• Sponge brush
• Iron
• Printer to print out your stencil

Preparing the Stencil:

Place the Stencil.

• Heat up your iron on medium.
• Place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to keep the paint from bleeding through.
• Attach the stencilI lined up the bottom of my Truffula image (the ground) with the bottom seam of my tshirt.
• You can clip the image to keep it in place.
• Carefully use the iron to adhere the image correctly to your tshirt.  It’s a little hard to work with this complex a stencil, so take your time. Once you’re sure everything is in place, iron the stencil in place on the tshirt.

 Paint

Want to see more The Lorax craft projects? Here’s a full list of the blog tour–go check them out, and maybe meet some new cool crafters!

Get Creative with The Lorax Blog Tour:

Feb 1 Today’s Creative Blog
Feb 2 Katydid and Kid
Feb 3 Zakka Life
Feb 6 Smashed Peas & Carrots
Feb 7 Whimsy Love
Feb 8 Little Birdie Secrets
Feb 9 Art Projects for Kids
Feb 10 Dabbled (You’re Here Now!)
Feb 13 Prudent Baby
Feb 14 Tonya Staab

Thanks to Universal Pictures for sponsoring this post!  I hope you all enjoy the project…

I love Freezer Paper Stencils. They allow you to do much more intricate designs than regular stencils, and are so much easier to work with.
Below is an example of a simple design I used to decorate cotton training pants I did for the Boy when he was potty training. They were plain white, and I figured he’d be more excited about them if they had a design on them. For these, I chose a simple robot and the letter “D” (known to the Boy as “my letter!”)

The ProcessThis technique works on any kind of cloth/clothes… In fact, my original foray into this type of project was a Robot T-shirt (also for The Boy). As you can see on this one (orange shirt, at the top of this post), it was a much more intricate pattern, and i used darker, thicker fabric paint. It took alot longer to xacto out the pattern.

So, for the training pants, I wanted something quick and easy, so I used a simple robot design, and a very simple letter. I also used some paint i had on hand, which isn’t as thick, so the results aren’t quite as crisp as the previous version.

Materials:
Freezer Paper (buy a big roll in any grocery store). It has a paper side and a slick side.
Xacto knife
Iron
Fabric Paint
Sponge or sponge brush
your target Fabric (anything that is relatively smooth and accepts fabric paint)

Step 1:
Determine your design.
I like to sketch something out with a big sharpie, and color it in in black. Draw your design on the paper (non-slick) side of the Freezer Paper. Remember that the area you color black will be the area you cut out, and the ‘painted’ portion of your design. If you’re not artistic, just find some appropriate clip art. The great thing about this type of stencil is that it’s perfectly ok to have pieces that are unattached to your main design, you’ll just place them in where they need to go. In this simple example (the training pants), the robot’s eyes are o’s of freezer paper that I placed on the fabric where I wanted them to go.

Step 2:
Cut out your design.
The important thing is to keep the white parts intact, you can mess up the black parts, they are trash. Cut out any interior pieces, and don’t lose them! (It’s also a good idea to mark the top (non-smooth) side with a pen so you can tell which side is up)

Step 3:
Heat your iron.
Layout your primary stencil (the white part) on your fabric, slick side down.
Iron it on til it sticks (doesn’t take long)
Place each interior piece where you want it to go, and iron it on.
Repeat til done.
Give everything a final press with the iron to ensure it’s stuck.

-painting the stencil…-

Step 4:
You’re now ready to paint.
A sponge or sponge brush dipped in fabric paint does nicely. Dab the paint on lightly, in an up and down stippling motion, repeating til the area is thickly covered.
Let it dry a bit and touch up any light spots (be sure to get good coverage near the edges to have a clean edge.

Step 5:
Let it dry to touch.
You can then begin carefully peeling off the stencils.

Step 6:
You’re basically done. Check the label on your fabric paint to see what it recommends, but I usually don’t re-iron or anything like that.

Here’s some onesies I did, using both the positive and negative stencils, and mixing different fabric paints.

Not my best attempt, but i think they came out kinda cute. I reused the cut aways to make a reverse image on the robots, which worked pretty well–I particularly like the hand colored look of the one that says ‘Robot’. I tried a combination of paint colors this time for a different effect. However the lime paint was really too light, so I wasnt thrilled with that. Not bad for a few hours work, though…

This technique works on any kind of cloth/clothes… In fact, my original foray into this type of project was a Robot T-shirt (also for The Boy). As you can see on this one, it was a much more intricate pattern, and i used darker, thicker fabric paint. It took alot longer to xacto out the pattern.

So, for the training pants, I wanted something quick and easy, so I used a simple robot design, and a very simple letter. I also used some paint i had on hand, which isn’t as thick, so the results aren’t quite as crisp as the previous version.

The Process
Materials:
Freezer Paper (buy a big roll in any grocery store). It has a paper side and a slick side.
Xacto knife
Iron
Fabric Paint
Sponge or sponge brush
your target Fabric (anything that is relatively smooth and accepts fabric paint)

Step 1:
Determine your design.
I like to sketch something out with a big sharpie, and color it in in black. Draw your design on the paper (non-slick) side of the Freezer Paper. Remember that the area you color black will be the area you cut out, and the ‘painted’ portion of your design. If you’re not artistic, just find some appropriate clip art. The great thing about this type of stencil is that it’s perfectly ok to have pieces that are unattached to your main design, you’ll just place them in where they need to go. In this simple example (the training pants), the robot’s eyes are o’s of freezer paper that I placed on the fabric where I wanted them to go.

Step 2:
Cut out your design.
The important thing is to keep the white parts intact, you can mess up the black parts, they are trash. Cut out any interior pieces, and don’t lose them! (It’s also a good idea to mark the top (non-smooth) side with a pen so you can tell which side is up)

Step 3:
Heat your iron.
Layout your primary stencil (the white part) on your fabric, slick side down.
Iron it on til it sticks (doesn’t take long)
Place each interior piece where you want it to go, and iron it on.
Repeat til done.
Give everything a final press with the iron to ensure it’s stuck.

-painting the stencil…-

Step 4:
You’re now ready to paint.
A sponge or sponge brush dipped in fabric paint does nicely. Dab the paint on lightly, in an up and down stippling motion, repeating til the area is thickly covered.
Let it dry a bit and touch up any light spots (be sure to get good coverage near the edges to have a clean edge.

Step 5:
Let it dry to touch.
You can then begin carefully peeling off the stencils.

Step 6:
You’re basically done. Check the label on your fabric paint to see what it recommends, but I usually don’t re-iron or anything like that.