Be Mine Bonanza: Day 1-I Love My Husband Shirt

Welcome to the 1st day of Be Mine Bonanza! For the next 7 days, 7 fun Valentine Themed Tutorials will be featured here at At Home With K. I just want to thank the 6 other guest bloggers for joining me on this event! I really appreciate you sharing your time and talent with us!

I hope we all will inspire you to CREATE!

Today, I'll be showing you how to make a personalized t-shirt-love style.

I actually got this idea from a friend couple of ours. They both have shirts that say "I love my husband/wife" They're cute and I have always wanted one for myself to 'display' my love for my hubby. I saw hubby's face light up when I told him what I was making for the Be Mine Bonanza. So I know he appreciates it!

What you need:

1. Freezer Paper

2. Exacto Knife (unless you have a cricut or silhouette machine...lucky you)

3. cutting mat

4.cardboard

5. Acrylic craft paint-any color

6. Textile Medium

7. Stencil Brush

8. Iron

9. Pre-Washed t-shirt

First, you print off what you want your t-shirt to say.

I recommend:

I love my husband.

I love my wife.

I love my boyfriend.

I love my girlfriend.

You can easily print this off your computer in any font/size.

Then place a piece of freezer paper right over the print out and start cutting out the letters with the exacto knife. The freezer paper is kind of transparent for easy cutting or tracing. Make sure to have your cutting mat or a piece of cardboard underneath to protect your surface.

After you have it all cut out, iron down the the freezer paper (slick side down) on the area of your shirt where you want your saying to be. Make sure to iron down the letter edges well so the paint does not bleed under the stencil.

When you are cutting, you will notice that you will have to keep the inside areas of some letters. Like the b,a,d shown in the below picture. Just don't lose them while you are cutting. After ironing down the main stencil, go back and place these small pieces inside the letters and iron them down as well (just make sure sticky side down).

You can use fabric paint if you have it on hand. But for this tutorial, I used what I got.  I have lots of craft paint and in order for me to paint on fabric, I need to use a Textile Medium to make it into a "fabric paint". You mix 2 parts craft paint to 1 part textile medium. I found this small bottle for $1.50 at Hobby Lobby (can get it cheaper with a 40% off coupon). It can be found in the craft paint area.

After I mixed my paint and textile medium, then I'm ready to stencil.

Place a small piece of cardboard between the front and back of the shirt...to prevent the paint from bleeding to the opposite side of your shirt.

A little paint goes a long way when stenciling. After you dab your paint brush into the paint, take off the excess paint by pouncing the bristles onto a scrap piece of paper. You don't want the paint to bleed under the stencil. You can always go back for a second coat if you don't think it's enough.

After it's dry, you peel back your stencil. Heat set the paint by going over it lightly with an iron. This will make it permanent.

There you have it, a fun little project to show the one you love that you care!

I love you, hubby!

Make sure to come back each day this week for more fun Valentine project ideas!

I'm linking up with a few of these linky parties this week.