adventures in creativity.

Monday, August 23, 2010

How to Print Anything onto Fabric

Today I am going to show you how to prepare a piece of fabric to run through a regular old inkjet printer. This is not a new technique, but it is so very handy for many different types of crafty goodness.

Here is what you will need:

  • Fabric (solid, light colored works best.)
  • Freezer paper (found in wax paper aisle.)
  • Iron and ironing board
  • Printer
  • Printer paper
  • Computer
  • Pen
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
Let's get started! First, iron your fabric. You will need a piece that is just a bit larger than your printer paper. Once your fabric is ironed, cut a piece of freezer paper just larger than your fabric. Place the freezer paper over the fabric and run a warm, dry iron over it. You may have to play with the temp a bit, the idea is to get the freezer paper to stick to your fabric.




Now, take a piece of printer paper and lie it on top of the freezer paper that you have bonded to your fabric. Use your ruler to make sure you have straight edges and trace the printer paper onto the freezer paper
as so:



Then, cut it to the size of the printer paper.


Now for the fun part! Choose an image to print; a picture, clip art, anything really! Just make sure to respect copyrighted work. I found a beautiful wreath border, and speaking of copyrighted work, I can not remember where I found it. If you recognize it please tell me where it came from so I can credit the artist and link back to their blog!
I have been wanting to make a monogram for a long time, so I uploaded the wreath to Picnik and added an "S" to the center. I also played with the color a bit. Anyway....when you are ready to print, simply place your freezer paper-bonded fabric (fabric side up) into your printer, start printing, and voila!


Perfectly printed right onto the fabric!


Now, peel it off the freezer paper and embroider, embellish, or do whatever you would like with it!

Have a fantastic day!

11 comments:

  1. What a great tutorial! Thanks so much. I found you through OnePrettyThing.

    Katy

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  2. AWESOME!!! Thanks for sharing!!
    I found you from one pretty thing.
    I'd love for you to link this up to Socialize with me Monday til Sunday
    http://simpsonizedcraftsandthensome.blogspot.com/2010/08/socialize-with-me-monday-til-sunday_23.html

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  3. Found you on One Pretty Thing! This technique is absolutely amazing! Thanks for sharing and I hope it works for me. I just became a follower.

    www.rockiescrafts.blogspot.com

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  4. I think this would probably work best in an inkjet printer. Just a warning: I completely destroyed my laser printer a few months back when I attempted to do this same thing...the freezer paper (wrong side, not the sticky side!) actually got stuck to the drum of my printer when it was hot, and despite dismantling the printer we weren't able to save it :(

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  5. What a great idea! The printable paper is o expensive! Does this only work with inkjet printers?? :)

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  6. I think that it does only work with inkjet printers. Thanks for the comments! :)

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  7. oooh, this is a great shortcut. thanks for sharing.

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  8. I'm featuring this tip today! :)
    Thanks for sharing at Socialize with me Monday til Sunday

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  9. I featured this today!!
    http://simpsonizedcraftsandthensome.blogspot.com/2010/08/recap-of-last-weeks-link-party.html

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  10. And thanks to all for leaving such great comments!

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