Hunger Games T-Shirt: a tutorial

Have you read the Hunger Games yet? I first heard about it on Busy Bee Lauren (one of my daily reads, love that girl!). Her raving posts convinced me to give it a try, and I wasn't disappointed. I read the first in two days and now I'm diving into the second. 

So when Plaid sent me their "Simply Screen" Screen Printing Kit, I naturally thought I should make a Hunger Games shirt. Now I have something to wear to the movie premiere in March. 

The kit comes with everything you need for screen printing including three colors of paint. However, I decided to use Plaid Gold Dust paint and the gold glitter (that are sold separately) for this project.

I started out by printing my image (Modified from this source). 

Then inside the box, I put my image face down on the sticky/textured side of the stencil canvas. I placed a thin sheet of clear glass stolen from a picture frame on top to ensure that I got a crisp, clear image. 

Once I had everything in place I put the hood of the box back on, turned on the light, and let the image "cook" on to the screen for 25 minutes. 

In tepid water I scrubbed away the image, leaving a fine mesh behind that allows paint to seep through.

What I love about this kit is that the stencils you make can be used over and over again. Now I have this awesome Hunger Games stencil to use on more shirts, bags, etc.

I taped the stencil in place on my shirt. 

and used the provided tool to pull the paint down through the screen. Be sure to have something in between the front and back of your shirt to keep the paint from going through both layers.

Then I just lifted up my stencil very carefully. 

I didn't really pull the paint down evenly so I ended up with a few streaks. 

No worries, the glitter hid my mistake quite nicely. 

Normally you'd use Plaid's glitter adhesive if you want glitter in your final product.


I'm loving the final product! What do you think?

So here are my final thoughts on Plaid's Simply Screen Kit...

Pros:

No cutting required as in freezer paper stenciling

Much more affordable than a Silhouette

You can use detailed images from the web or your own designs

Can be purchased at Hobby Lobby (and only there)

Fairly quick process from start to finish

Stencils can be used again and again

Neat-o!

Cons:

Refills are relatively expensive

The largest screen is smaller than regular-sized copy paper

...

If you'd like a scanned copy of the template I used, email me! I'd like to include it in the post as a pdf download but I'm not that tech savvy. Anyone know how to do that and willing to teach me? Thanks!

*Update*

You guys are awesome! I think I figured it out. Thanks so much! 

You should be able to print a real-sized copy of the image I used here

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