DIY: Inspirational Quote T-Shirt

Not many things in life can be as strong as words. Words can be our source of inspiration or give us a little pick me up when feeling close to the floor. I love inspirational quotes and I tend to put them all over. It may be a collage frame on the wall or a pendant with my favorite quote or just a card.

I've wanted to make a T-shirt with such a quote for a long time and I expected it to be much harder than what it came out to be. It was actually very, very easy!

I chose the following quote from apparently "anonymous". I looked everywhere but could not find its origin so pardon me that: " I'd rather live a life of  'oh wells' than a life of  'what ifs' "

     It is a very easy project and you can use any quote or text that you like.

You will need:

 

  - a T-shirt

- freezer paper

- cloth iron

- X-acto knife

- pencil or marker

- cutting mat or a piece of cardboard that you can cut your stencil on 

- fabric paint

- sponge brush

- scissors

- a piece of cardboard or a big plastic bag to put in the t-shirt so that 

the paint does not transfer to the backside

Start by either printing your text on the freezer paper -on the mat side- or printing it out on normal paper and then tracing it on the freezer paper with a marker. That's what I did since my printer really did not want to feed on the freezer paper.

After tracing or printing your text on the freezer paper use the X-acto knife and start cutting on the outline of the letters as if you are tracing them.  

Make sure you save all inner shapes like the inside shape of an O because you will need to iron them on the t-shirt! *picture for reference*

Once you are done cutting the text use your scissors to trim the paper around a little bit. Don't overdo it else you may paint outside the paper once it is on the t-shirt.

Set your iron on medium heat and place your design on the t-shirt
arranging it as you like it best.

Iron the freezer paper on the t-shirt -glossy side down- and add the small inside shapes to the corresponding letters. To make it easier I wrote behind each of them which word they were cut out of so that I don't mix them up.

 Freezer paper will stay put once ironed so you can now place a piece of cardboard or a plastic bag inside the t-shirt and start painting your stencil.

 I poured some of the paint in a paper cup and used a foam brush generously applying the paint all over the stencil.

 Once you have painted your design let the paint dry according to your manufacturer's instructions.

When the paint has dried just peel off your stencil.

 Slowly peel all your pieces including the small ones.

 The freezer paper peels off so easy that my stencil was intact and ready to be used again.

Nearly done!

 Most fabric paints require a sort of heat treatment afterwards so that the color becomes permanent. Mine required ironing the fabric inside out for 5 minutes. Read your paint's instructions and treat it accordingly.

 Once your fabric paint is set you are all done and can rock your new, rather unique t-shirt :)

 Hope you like it :)

xoxo