Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Official Pinter*Mel Project #2 - Mod Podge Screen Printing

The Inspiration: Pinterest - DIY Screenprint Tee with Mod Podge

The Progress: 
You'll need the following: 
 - A piece of fabric to screen print onto (I chose a tote bag)
- Your favourite acrylic paint (note: next time I'll use fabric paint to improve washability of painted fabric.) 
- 2 flat-head paint brushes (one bigger than the other - 1 for paint, 1 for Mod Podge)
- A cross stitch hoop
- A Sharpie, or other quality marker/felt-tipped pen
- Nylons
- Scissors

Next, cut a piece of nylon (I used some old thigh-highs), and stretch it into the cross stitch hoop. Be sure to screw it in tightly or it will move around and mess up the image you'll be screen printing. 


Select your image and tape it onto the nylon. I used a stencil, mostly because I suck at drawing free-hand. 


Trace it with a Sharpie, or other felt-tipped pen/marker. Once you're finished tracing, remove the stencil. 

Here comes the most time consuming part of this DIY craft; painting the negative space with Mod Podge. Use the smaller of your flat-headed brushes for this task. If your design is more intricate use a smaller brush. 

Mod Podge doesn't take very long to dry, usually about half an hour. You'll know it's dry because the white will be all gone. 


Now it's time to paint! I put a piece of cardboard inside my tote bag just in case the fabric decided to be super absorbent and leech the paint into the inside of the bag. 


Place your screen print where you wish on the fabric, and with your bigger flat-head brush begin to blotch paint onto the nylon within your design. Pay special attention to the edges and make sure that you are using enough paint. 


Once completed, gently lift the screen print off. 


If needed, grab a smaller brush and fill in any spots you may have missed, or that need to be made a little crisper. 


Voila! Let this dry for a few hours, and then you're good to go! If you wash your screen print you might be able to use it again. I washed mine, however, I haven't used them again yet. I'll report back when I do. 

I continued to do a few more prints on this tote: 








Total Approximate Cost: Tote - $6, Paint (bought the green colour) - $4 = $10 

Everything else I already had laying about. If you had to buy everything it would most likely run about $30, however you would have enough supplies to screen print ALL THE THINGS!

Have you done screen printing with Mod Podge? Do you have an EVEN EASIER way to screen print at home? I want to hear from you! Leave a comment below, or tweet @PinterMel.



-Melissa 

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