Screen Printing without a screen printer!
I've been wanting to try screen printing for a while now but if you know anything about me, you'll know that I have a LOT of interests in the way of crafts. This means that I unfortunately do not have a lot of free space in my tiny apartment and I don't know if I should buy a screen printer that will take up valuable space because I don't know how often I'll actually use it. Oh how I wish I had a garage or some other place for all of my arts and crafts so space wouldn't be an issue! Anyhow, I have seen a few people online doing screen printing with nothing more than organza, an embroidery hoop and some mod podge. This idea is very attractive to me because #1 it is obviously very inexpensive, so that's always a plus. and #2 it won't take up much space!
So I was thinking about this last night and I was really wanting to try this out, but sadly I had all the supplies except for the embroidery hoop. It was getting late too so no stores were open. For some reason, I feel the most creative late at night. It's very inconvenient but I can't help it! I was trying to figure out a way I could still make a screen printing with the supplies I had at home. I felt like MacGyver! Here is what I found: a small USPS box, some organza, mod podge. The cardboard box will act in place of my hoop.
Basically, the organza is your screen, the mod podge will be painted onto the organza to let your ink or pain only go through where you want it to (thats what screen printers are for, after all) and the cardboard will be what i stretch my fabric onto to keep it tight and smooth. Since I wasn't even sure if this would work, I wanted to keep it small scale. I cut out my cardboard and made it into a frame. Then I cut out some organza the same size as the cardboard. Then I stapled it to the cardboard while keeping it as tight as i could. Then I needed a design to use so I grabbed my Hello Kitty coloring book. What? Doesn't every girl have a Hello Kitty coloring book laying around? So, I found a little Kitty that would fit in my screen and traced it out in pencil. Then I laid my screen down onto some wax paper to protect my table from the next step. This is the part where you have to be very careful. If you mess up, your screen won't work too well. You need to paint your Mod Podge onto your screen everywhere that you DON'T want your design to be. I didn't take a "before" picture but here is my "after". (After I used it, which is why it has black paint on it) You have to let the Mod Podge dry completely, and you will probably need to do more than one coat. I did two or three coats.
Finally, when your screen is all dry you can use it! This is the fun part. Again, I didn't know if this was even going to work. I also realized that I don't have fabric ink and being the impatient person that I am, I opted to use fabric paint. So, I laid my screen down on some scrap fabric and painted the fabric paint onto the screen. It didn't come through completely and I think this is because I was supposed to use a sponge brush to kind of stamp the ink/paint down thru the screen instead of painting it. As you can see, it basically worked, so I'm sure if I used a sponge brush and fabric ink that this would have come out much better.
So, there you go! You can do screen printing at home and it doesn't have to cost much money. Let me know if you try this out! I think I'll get some proper fabric ink and try it out again! Good luck and have fun!
So I was thinking about this last night and I was really wanting to try this out, but sadly I had all the supplies except for the embroidery hoop. It was getting late too so no stores were open. For some reason, I feel the most creative late at night. It's very inconvenient but I can't help it! I was trying to figure out a way I could still make a screen printing with the supplies I had at home. I felt like MacGyver! Here is what I found: a small USPS box, some organza, mod podge. The cardboard box will act in place of my hoop.
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| Homemade Hello Kitty Screen Printer |
Basically, the organza is your screen, the mod podge will be painted onto the organza to let your ink or pain only go through where you want it to (thats what screen printers are for, after all) and the cardboard will be what i stretch my fabric onto to keep it tight and smooth. Since I wasn't even sure if this would work, I wanted to keep it small scale. I cut out my cardboard and made it into a frame. Then I cut out some organza the same size as the cardboard. Then I stapled it to the cardboard while keeping it as tight as i could. Then I needed a design to use so I grabbed my Hello Kitty coloring book. What? Doesn't every girl have a Hello Kitty coloring book laying around? So, I found a little Kitty that would fit in my screen and traced it out in pencil. Then I laid my screen down onto some wax paper to protect my table from the next step. This is the part where you have to be very careful. If you mess up, your screen won't work too well. You need to paint your Mod Podge onto your screen everywhere that you DON'T want your design to be. I didn't take a "before" picture but here is my "after". (After I used it, which is why it has black paint on it) You have to let the Mod Podge dry completely, and you will probably need to do more than one coat. I did two or three coats.
Finally, when your screen is all dry you can use it! This is the fun part. Again, I didn't know if this was even going to work. I also realized that I don't have fabric ink and being the impatient person that I am, I opted to use fabric paint. So, I laid my screen down on some scrap fabric and painted the fabric paint onto the screen. It didn't come through completely and I think this is because I was supposed to use a sponge brush to kind of stamp the ink/paint down thru the screen instead of painting it. As you can see, it basically worked, so I'm sure if I used a sponge brush and fabric ink that this would have come out much better.
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| Hello Kitty! |
So, there you go! You can do screen printing at home and it doesn't have to cost much money. Let me know if you try this out! I think I'll get some proper fabric ink and try it out again! Good luck and have fun!
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