Philly Swap 2010 and a craft for your weekend!

Philly Swap 2010 is fast approaching! If you live in the Philadelphia area, you should totally come. It's an afternoon filled with unlimited clothing swaps, silk-screening workshops, craft demonstrations, live music, art exhibitions, and more. The date is Sunday, October 3rd and it will run from noon to 5pm in the beautiful Urban Outfitters HQ space at the Navy Yard. General admission tickets are $20 but if you enter the promo code: FBSWAP at http://phillyswap.ticketleap.com/2010 you'll get $3 off!

I'll be one of the craft demonstrators and my workshop will be all about stenciling and stamping with household materials. Next week I will be practicing for the big event and sharing my results on The Lettered Set. Stay tuned to learn how to stamp and make cards with all sorts of things that you already have in the house! Today's craft is the main feature so I thought I would treat it as a "craft for your weekend" in case you have time to try it too. I'm making stenciled fabric gift tags using freezer paper and fabric paint. Read on for instructions and photos of the process. Happy crafting!

Materials

• sturdy cotton fabric
• iron
• pinking shears
• stencil brush or foam brush
• freezer paper stencil (can be cut by hand with a hobby knife and a pattern you create or you can use a decorative paper punch like I did)
• iron
• fabric paint

1. Cut the stencil out of the freezer paper. You can see that I just used my "reindeer" paper punch and it took two seconds.

2. Cut a square of fabric using your pinking shears. These special sewing scissors help prevent fraying and also add a decorative look to unfinished fabric.
3. Glossy side DOWN, place the freezer paper stencil on your fabric. Make sure the freezer paper isn't bigger than your piece of fabric or else it will stick to your work surface too.
4. With a hot iron on the DRY setting, iron the freezer paper onto the fabric. It only takes a couple of seconds.

5. Use your stencil brush and lightly tap the fabric paint onto your stencil. A little dab will do ya. Hold the brush perpendicular to stencil (bristles should be flat) and blot the brush around edge of design, working your way toward the middle of the stencil area. This will prevent the paint from getting underneath the stencil.

6. Allow your stencil to dry for a few minutes - you can use a hair dryer to expedite the process.
Slowly peel the stencil away from the fabric.

You can do anything you want with your newly stenciled fabric. I chose to make gift tags. Using my pinking shears I neatened the edges of the tag. I used a 1/8" hole punch at the top and embroidery thread for the tie. When you write on the tag, use a fabric pen if you have one. I do not so I used a fine-tipped permanent marker. The only problem with not using a fabric pen is that the ink bleeds through and your message will look best on same side as the stencil.