Stencil Sweatshirt DIY

 In a few weeks I'm going on a beach vacation with my family. I am dreaming of sunshine, ocean waves, and warm (sand beneath my toes, the beach gives a feeling, an earthy feeling. I believe in the faith that grows And the four right chords can make me cry.) Third Eye Blind just gets it. But I digress. Here is a relatively simple and customizable (my favorite!) DIY. You will need: posterboard (or some other thick paper), a plain sweatshirt, an exacto knife, fabric paint and brush, a ruler and a pencil. I thrifted my sweatshirt to save money and in case I hated how this project turned out, but I don't. This sweatshirt turned out awesome!

1. Figure out what you would like your stencil to say. Pinterest is a good place to look for ideas. I went with the dream life, vacation mentality, but you do you.
2. Decide how much of your sweatshirt surface area you want to paint, and cut a coordinating sized piece of poster board. I had scraps of poster board lying around so I had a few different pieces.
3. Use a pencil and ruler to plan out the spacing of your stencil. I had five lines of text so I made my letters  about 2.5 inches big with a quarter inch of space between each line.
4. Draw out your block letters on the posterboard. I free handed mine so they aren't perfect, but I like the slightly messy look.
5. Use the exacto knife to score the letters. You may need to go over them several times. Make sure you do this on a hard surface. The letters should be easy to pop out when you're done. Depending on how much text you have, this is a bit time consuming so you may want to do it in stages.
6. Place cardboard or folders in between the front and back of your sweatshirt to protect against any leakage.
7. Tape the corners of your stencil down on the sweatshirt then get painting! Just follow the instructions on your fabric paint for how to set it and wash it.

 I really love how this project turned out! I'll admit, I was skeptical as to how well my stencil would hold up, but it did a great job. I'd love to do another stenciled sweatshirt, but maybe of a ship this time, or a cute animal silhouette! If you decide to try this DIY share your photos!