Cupid Rhymes with Stupid

My younger sister-in-law is on her high school ASB or Student Body. They have to dress up for about every holiday and school function and when she came over to work on her Valentines to give to her friends, we decided to come up with something custom to wear for Valentine's Day.

This shirt was not our original plan however! We had planned on making the Rufflicious Top over at Polkadots on Parade. I made one the other day for my neighbor's daughter and it turned out beautifully.

We were joking around about Valentine's Day not being so much fun for her because her boyfriend had just broken up with her and so, the Cupid Valentine's Day Top was born:

Supplies needed:
1 t-shirt
freezer paper
iron
sponge brush or paint brush
cardboard or something to layer under the shirt
fabric paint (I used acrylic paint because that's all I had on hand)

To do this with the Silhouette: Tear off a piece of freezer paper the same size as the cutting mat and lay it shiny side down on the mat. I used the LD Hearts font and a cupid from the Silhouette store. Then cut the design with the "Print Paper" setting.

You can also trace a design on freezer paper by hand with an X-acto knife.

To get the stencil, peel the outside of the design off the mat. This is what you will be using. You will also need any of the small pieces such as the inside of the arrow and the hearts inside the letters. The design may curl some, but if you peel the mat away from the template rather than peeling the template off this should help it not curl so much.

Place this centered on the front of the shirt.

I always like to use a press cloth to avoid having things stick to the iron. You can also use a piece of muslin or cotton fabric if you don't have a press cloth.

Set the iron to the highest setting the fabric will allow without steam. Lay the cloth very carefully over your design and press the iron slowly over the whole design. Work carefully so you can adjust the small pieces if they happen to shift at all. I like to go over it several times to make sure that the freezer paper is adhered very well.

Your freezer paper should be stuck to the shirt like a sticker. Then place a piece of cardboard or something thick between the layers of the shirt to prevent the paint from bleeding through to the back.

Now you can use your fabric paint or acrylic paint (it might fade or be stiffer than fabric paint) and fill in your template.

Fill it in slowly to avoid big globs of paint. I did two thin layers and let them dry well in between.Then let it dry really well after the last layer of paint. I cheated and got out the heat gun since my sister-in-law was going to be taking it home soon.

When it is completely dry, peel off the stencil and you will have a totally custom Valentine's Day shirt!

I think I signed myself up to be the permanent shirt maker for all her school functions!