TUTORIAL: Stenciling Dish Towels

I picked up these flour sack towels and stenciled them.

1. Lay your towel out on a flat surface; make sure you have a paper towel underneath the flour sack.

2. I used black ink, but you could use any color.

3. I used a stencil brush.

4. Keep brushing your stencil brush over the ink till yur brush has enough ink on the bristles.

5. Lay your stencil on top of the towel, on the center fold of the towel.
(Most towels will already be prefolded so find the middle of the towel.

6. For my 123 towel, I put the stencil opening with the two directly on the center line of the towel. Dab or rub your brush all on the opening of the number two till it is filled with black ink.

7. Now for the number one, move to the left of the two, eye the space between the numbers, lay the stencil down again and redab your brush on the ink and apply to the towel the same way.

8. Number 3 is to the right of the two and repeat as with number 1 and 2.

9. "BE CAREFUL" to not rub onto any other opening of other numbers or you will get black spots as I got. You may want that look anyway. Many sacks that were made out of burlap and linen have smudge marks or numbers or letters blurry.

10. Now iron the piece with a paper towel over the numbers. This makes the numbers more permanent into the fabric so it will not wash out.

I then did one with the word "Paris" on it. I love white towels and writing or symbols on the fabric. It adds a little interest in your kitchen.

Plain Water Transfer

This is 140 lb water color paper. I wet one side of the paper with a paint brush and water, then placed the image down on the wet, used the wallpaper seamer roller and rolled it out well. I also did a transfer with the extra heavy gel gloss medium and painted the paper, the ink copy and layed them together. Rolled that one with the roller also.

Blow drying your images I find is a great help. Let them sit for about 15 to 20 minutes after you have used the blower or heat dryer to let the ink bond with the paper. Your using a bone folder and or brayer of some sort makes the air bubbles come out between the two surfaces. You can use your finger or anything that is blunt (not sharp)to rub these surfaces together. The blower dryer sets the ink. If you desire to wait longer, that is o.k.

The plain water transfer can be lightly removed without adding more water. the gel transfer will need water sprayed on the back.

Voila!