Phanessa's Crafts: Personalized Bridal Tanks

I've been wanting to print on clothing for awhile. I wanted to try the freezer paper method and this was a good opportunity for me to try. My friend is getting married and we planned a shower for her. We had brunch and went wine tasting...

Back when I got married, we partied. Now, most of us have little children and hardly have time to escape the house. We kept the event local and part day. I had planned to pump in the parking lot but ended up not having to... not that it would be the first time!

Anyway, the wedding theme is Nautical (is that what it's called?)... so I wanted to make personalized tanks for the girls. My best friend came to help with her Cricut Expression so that we have 2 to work with... well, I haven't used mine in a long time and I was not having the best of luck not to mention, my little boys kept interrupting. Things didn't work out...

Instead of going to bed like I should have, I decided to google about the Cricut Explore Air (latest model). I just love the idea of having your own fonts and art available to use. It didn't take long for me to run to the nearest JoAnn's during lunch the next day to buy one! My justification was that it's a birthday gift for myself even though my birthday isn't for another 2 weeks :)

I was limited with time so I rushed through this project!

There are tons of tutorials that use freezer paper without a cutting machine. You simply print your design on regular paper, trace it onto freezer paper and then cut it with a craft cutter.

For some reason, I purchased the Glitter (far right in photo) fabric paint thinking it's opaque. It's not. It's clear. Even though the bottle was white. UGH. So I was only able to paint the bride's tank since the blue paint was okay.

After I ironed the freezer paper to all the tanks, I painted the white tank and waited until the next day to finish the rest.

I had 10 tanks to make and it was recycle day soooo... hubby threw out all the cardboard I wanted to use under the layer of the tank so that the paint doesn't bleed through to the back. I used paper which kinda stuck to the shirt when I pulled off but it was fine for what I needed it for. Oh, do you see the sailor hat in the middle of the photo? I almost forgot that I had to make something out of that too! haha... don't worry, I eventually got to it.

I poured the paint on a little paper plate and used a sponge brush to apply the paint on the freezer paper stencils. I placed paper inside the shirt to prevent bleeding. I think cardboard would work better or even freezer paper on the other side...

After it dried a little, I went over it with another coat. I think it could have used one more coat but I really ran out of time because it needs 4 hours to dry flat. The kids will be home and I need it off my dining table... so two coats, it is!

I peeled off the stencil and admired it for a little bit and thinking of ways to improve it next time. Well, I plan to make personalized tops for my boys!

So... with the sailor hat. I printed a smaller stencil of the same anchor and painted that blue. I put a gem on the top of the anchor. Then I glued lace around the hat using a hot glue gun. Using white tulle, I hot glued those suckers to the back and glued 3 flowers over it. Viola!