Monogram Christmas Tea-Towels DIY: Freezer-Paper Stencils

For quick, easy and economical gifts,
try this Monogram Christmas Tea-Towels DIY.
Using freezer-paper to cut the stencils is absolutely brilliant.

 

There’s a whole new way of stenciling fabric that you may not know about. I didn’t, anyway, till lately.

Cut stencils out of freezer paper, because you can iron it onto the fabric and the paint stays in the lines.

Isn’t that brilliant?

So do you know what freezer paper is?

That’s what I thought. It’s not very common these days.

My mom and grandma bought it by huge rolls, because they butchered their own meat sometimes. If you buy or process meat at a butcher, you might get your meat wrapped in white paper. This is freezer paper. We actually used to call it butcher paper, because I only remember my mom using it to wrap meat.

And before plastic bags were invented, freezer paper offered a better seal than regular waxed paper. The shiny side on the freezer paper is actually a type of wax, and this can be ironed to fabric and used for a stencil. It also stabilizes fabric so you can run it through a printer!

Today we’re going to make monogram stencils with the Cricut™ to stencil Christmas tea-towels.

 

Make a Monogram Stencil:

What you need:

1. Cricut™ or other cutting machine, cutting mat.
2. Freezer paper.*
3. Fabric paint* and stencil dauber.*
4. Our Holly printable pattern, or your own design to pair with a monogram. To use our pattern, just copy and paste this image into your design program. (We use Photo Shop.)

 

 

Create your design on Cricut™ design space and cut your stencil:

1. If you use our Holly printable pattern, scan and save it as a png or jpeg image, and load it onto Design Space. Use the erase tool to erase all the spaces in the stencil where paint will go. Save it as a cut file.
2. Choose a font and add a monogram. Center it above the holly pattern.
3. Place the freezer paper shiny side down on the cutting mat and load into Cricut™. Knife depth should be quite shallow. Cut the design, and carefully remove from mat. Save the centers of letters like “D” and “O” for ironing to the fabric with the rest of the stencil.

 

 

Iron the stencil to the tea-towel and paint:

1. To iron the stencil to the fabric, place the shiny side of freezer paper next to fabric.
2. With iron on a low setting, no steam, slowly press the paper to the fabric. Move from place to place slowly so the loose pieces of the stencil don’t move. When the paper is nicely adhered, carefully move to your work table.
3. Dab the stencil brush in paint, then dab on a paper plate to get rid of excess paint. Paint in thin layers rather than layering on a lot of color at once. Use a tiny dauber for the berries and leaves, as they are so close together. I tore pieces of paper to lay over the berries when I painted the leaves.
4. Let the paint dry completely, as directed on your paint bottle, then remove the stencil. My paint was too wet the first try, so it bled under the design and the edges weren’t nice and clear. If your dauber is a little dryer you should have better luck. I fixed my mess with a fine point permanent marker, outlining everything in black. Also, do you think the monogram looks a little too big for the holly banner? I think I’ll make mine smaller next time. (I want to make a bunch of these for economical Christmas gifts. They are so fast once you have your stencil cut.)
5. If your type of paint recommends it, set the paint with an iron before using or washing the towel.

 

Your gift is all ready to give!

They’re so fast and easy, go ahead and make yourself a set of napkins. 🙂