This year you can prove your love to your Valentine by wearing your heart on your t-shirt. Paper cut screens are great fun and once you've bought the screen, squeegee and inks, they are really cheap to make. Some would consider the fact that you can't reuse them a disadvantage. Me? I think it adds to the limited-edition appeal!
You will need:
Plain printer paper (A3 sheets are actually better, but I used A4)
Punches - like the ones you would use with a hammer to punch holes in leather.
Hammer
Cutting tool
Cutting mat
Unexposed silk screen
Screen Printing inks & base
Squeegee
Of these materials, the silk screen and squeegee are the expensive items, so I would suggest that you first make sure that screen-printing is something you really want to do.
How to:
Draw a picture on your paper and start cutting out bits with the cutting tool & punching holes with the punch. Of course you can draw some more and then cut & punch more (I decided to add the A hearts D at this stage.) In my experience, lettering works the best if you rule a line above and below the letters, use only capitals and cut away the background around the letters.
Happy with your work of art? OK, now stick some scrap paper around your sheet of paper so that you don't accidentally print off the page.
Place your t-shirt on the working surface and smooth it out. (It might not be a bad idea to start off with a scrap of waste fabric - or how about a dish towel?)
Position your papercut image carefully on the t-shirt, right side up. I often manage to get it a bit skew - so concentrate!
Now mix some ink concentrate with clear base (if it's a dark print on a light t-shirt). Use white base if you're printing on a dark t-shirt.
Place the screen on top of the t-shirt, screen-side down and ask someone to hold it down firmly for you. Spoon the ink above the paper-cut design directly on the screen and pressing down firmly, drag the ink over the image with the squeegee. Stamp the squeegee down firmly beyond the image to shake of any ink, and drag the squeegee over the design in the opposite direction. Repeat two or three more times. Lift the screen carefully, hopefully the paper will stick to the screen and also lift off. You can print more t-shirts or other items. Once you're done, wash the screen very well, ensuring that no bits of paint clog the screen mesh. A pressure hose or even the hand tap in the bath work well.
Et voila! Now all you have to do is iron your t-shirt well, and surprise your honey on V-day!
great tutorial, your design is ethereal and beautiful!
Wow! That's a lovely design. I've been tentatively screenprinting too recently, and discovered that if you really want to work cheaply a piece of foamcore board works well as a squeegee. And an old net curtain is a pretty good substitute until there's time to get a screen stretched with proper silkscreening material.
Hi Helen, maybe some pretty doilies would work? That way you only need to cut the middle bit...?
How cool is that!!! I need to try that!
Execto knife always hurts my hand (from the pressure).
I wish I had some magic laser machine that would do all the cutting!
Nice instructions... I think I'd have to come back to this once I have a tad more time:)
FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! Great idea...
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