sparkle craft- "move mountains" t-shirt stencil
In this week's By Thistle By Thimble story, “The Woman Who Moved a Mountain”, Jeanine Norton, mother, grandmother, and crossing-guard for the intersection of Main and School Street, has a secret she has kept for 50 years—she is moving a mountain.
Why? The answer is simple and, yet, not so simple. She is moving a mountain so that she can have a view of something very important to her. Just when Jeanine is about to give up her momentous challenge, a friend comes along and gives her the final boost she needs to see over the top of her mountain.
Perhaps it's because I've been a prairie dweller for most of my life, but I love the imagery of mountains.
“You've been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.”
“The man standing on top of the mountain didn't fall there.”
And, particularly apropos for this story, “The best way to move a mountain is one stone at a time.”
There's something about imagining life's challenges as a big piece of rock that inspires me to buck up and start climbing.
If you, too, are galvanized by mountains, here's an idea for a t-shirt you can wear for the ascent.
If you've never tried freezer paper stencils before, you're in for a treat. It's an awesome way to jazz up a plain t-shirt or even strategically rescue a stained one.
Unless you're an exacto knife ninja, this is a printing method that works best with simple shapes and straight lines, but even with that limitation you can make an endless variety of cute, modern t-shirts.
This is also a fun way to make t-shirts with kids. An adult will probably need to do most of the ironing and cutting, but kids can easily do the painting part and they'll also have fun peeling the stencil off once the shirt is dry.
Download the “Move Mountains” stencil for this project to get started, and then see where your creativity leads.
“Move Mountains” Stenciled T-Shirt
Materials
Freezer paper
Tape
Cutting mat
Craft or exacto knife
Pre-washed t-shirt
An iron
Scrap paper or cardboard (about the size of a standard, 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper)
Fabric paint
Paint brush
Print out a copy of the “Move Mountains” stencil on regular printer paper. With the shiny side facing down, tape a similarly sized piece of freezer paper to a cutting mat. Then, tape the paper stencil on top, facing up.
Peel the paper stencil off the top of the freezer paper and discard it. Then, center the new freezer paper stencil on your t-shirt. Once you get it just where you want it, use a warm iron to stick it to the shirt, paying special attention to the inner points of the triangles that form the tops of the mountains. Let the stencil cool slightly.
Next, slip a piece of scrap paper or cardboard inside the t-shirt to keep paint from bleeding through. Then, dip your paint brush in the paint, and use it to fill in the lines that make the mountains. For best results, use an up-and-down, dabbing motion, and don't overload your brush with paint.
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About the Author
Meryl Carver-Allmond
The Sparkle Kitchen Series is created by Meryl Carver-Allmond.
Meryl lives in a hundred-year-old house near the prairie with her sweet husband, two preschoolers, one puppy, one gecko, and about ten chickens. While she's been writing since she could pick up a pen, in recent years she's discovered the joy of photography, too. She feels lucky to be able to combine those skills, along with a third passion — showing people that cooking for themselves can be healthy and fun — in her Sparkle Kitchen posts.
