Freezer Paper Printing: Easy How To

This month I completed my second project of attempting to learn something new/use a new medium: I made labels for the insides of the bags I sell on Etsy! It was actually incredibly easy, and I really like how they turned out.

The first thing I did was buy this freezer paper. I think you can buy it in rolls, like wax paper, but I couldn’t find any, plus you are going to need to cut it down to fit in your printer, so this was easiest.

This first thing you do is place your fabric on the ironing board, then place the freezer paper on top, shiny side down. Then just iron them together. The iron melts the wax and the paper sticks to the fabric. Once they are connected, trim off the extra fabric so you have a piece of fabric/paper that is 8 1/2″ x 11″.

The next step is to prepare whatever it is you want to print. I just opened a Word document and typed the name of my store in the font I use on my Etsy page. I did it in a few shades of grey and a few shades of turquoise because I wasn’t sure which one would turn out the best.

The next step is to just load it into your printer, making sure that the fabric side faces whichever way your printer feeds through to print on. Once it prints, you have a sheet of paper/fabric with your pattern on it!

All you have to do then is just peel the freezer paper off and you are left with just fabric.

I cut mine into labels and then sewed them to the linings of some bags I am going to post in my shop soon.

Like this awesome and bright one, made of 2 kinds of silk- hot pink raw silk and a slinky grey/cream polka dot, both purchased from French Seam. Oh, and I just remembered their silks are 40% off this week, so I will be going there tomorrow after work. Yay!

So, this project only took about 15 minutes, and I think there are so many options for things to print. I was thinking of printing outlines to then embroider over, or printing pictures to incorporate into a quilt. Even printing a pattern onto a small piece of fabric to use as lining or something. But I like using it for labels too, super easy, and much cheaper than the sites I’ve seen where you custom order fabric labels… No need!

Project #1

My first project is complete! I have not yet assembled my gallery wall, and I may wait to do that at my next apartment, wherever that may be, but I will have this ready for whenever. I really like the various letterpress-broadside type prints of cool quotations I have seen around, like this one

  and this one

I have a card that I got some where a long time ago and it’s been stuck to a packed away cork board since I lived in Boulder. It says “Happiness being a dessert so sweet may life give you more than you could ever eat.” It got stuck in my head for a few days so I decided to use it. I sketched a bit, and came up with a rough layout.

Then I typed up the letters in various fonts and printed them out. It took a few tries to get everything the right size and in a font I liked. Here’s an in-progress shot:

Once I had everything arranged how I wanted it, I traced it onto a separate piece of paper, and from there, I transfered the reverse image on the back of the page with a iron-on-transfer pen.

Then I ironed it to my fabric. Not really showing up in the pic, but I was able to see it in real life. I debated using a print fabric or a solid, but I’m glad I went with the print. I think it is cheerful.

I knew I wanted to do some embroidery, so I also purchased this pattern of fun letters and used them for the word dessert. I considered doing more stitching but I was anxious to finish so I didnt.

For the rest of the words I used a variety of different Martha Stewart paints that I already had. I really love these paints, they work on wood, fabric, plastic animals, glass, and probably a lot more. And they come in a lot of really good colors.

And here is the final product. It was hard to get the colors accurate with my camera though. I think I’ll eventually frame it or staple it around a canvass or something along those lines. I am happy with the way it turned out though. It would probably make a cute wedding gift as well, either to hang or on a pillow?

Thanks for looking! I recommend making one! If you didnt use embroidery it probably wouldnt take long at all. Let me know if you do!