DIY Screen Printing!

From the Youngest Daughter :)

And the Firstborn Daughter ... sort of.

(As promised, super cool post #2!)

These past weeks our family has been doing an amazingly fun and addicting and cool project. Screen printing!!

Here's how to do it:

(Note: the first pics are from my sis, who did post some of them on her facebook. So you may have seen them before. However, toward the end there are some new ones.)

1. Get an embroidery hoop and old pair of nylons, a pen or pencil and the picture you want. You can design your own picture, or print it off of the computer, or you can use words.

Now stretch the nylon over your embroidery hoop. This can be tricky, so you may need to tape down some corners to hold them in place. Or just grow another five hands. That would work too. :)

Once you have the nylon secured in the embroidery hoop, set it nylon side down on top of your design. Trace the design onto the nylon. A permanent pen works well.
(Better than the pencil pictured. ;)

Now you'll need Mod Podge and some oldish smallish paint brushes. Paint the Mod Podge around your design. Do not paint the part of the design you want showing. Basically you're making a stencil. :)
Let it dry.

Now lay your screen nylon side down on whatever you want to print. Shown here is a book bag.

Now put your paint on the screen! We used stuff called Simply Screen, a water based screen printing paint that we got at Hobby Lobby. Use a stiff paint brush to work it into the stencil. Be careful not to move the embroidery hoop!

Now comes the super scary part! Pick up your screen. AAAAHHHH!

*Whew!* It worked!

Be sure to rinse off your screen so you can use it again!

Here we used the same screen to print a green T-shirt. Isn't it cute?!

A few days ago I had a friend over, and we made a panda screen! We printed dishtowels:

And this amazingly cute T-shirt!! Doesn't it look super expensive/professional?

We're so awesome. ;)

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. You NEED to put a piece of heavy paper, preferably cardboard inside your shirt, or under whatever you're printing. Because the paint leaks through! And you don't want that on the inside/back of your shirt.

It leaks a lot, actually. This is the paper we put under the dishtowels.

I thought it looked really cool though, so I painted around it and made this.

A sweet towel. A T-shirt. And art. All from the same screen. :)

Are you gonna try screen printing now? Cuz you should. Definitely.

However, be forewarned. It's so much fun you're going to want to print everything in sight! It's even tempting to print the walls. ;-P