This is so overdue it's not funny

but hopefully worth the wait

Alix - sorry it has taken so long!

I quick photo stencil how-to for anyone wanting to make something similar (but hopefully not take almost 6 months over it like I have!)

This was the photo of the suave Swede that I started off with:










I took it into Photoshop and thresholded it, playing with the cut off until I was happy that the resulting black and white image was recognisably Mattias:



This image was then printed onto freezer paper, and all the black parts were cut out with a sharp knife (slowly and carefully) - leaving bridges where necessary to make sure that bits like the vintage logo on the jersey didn't fall out of the stencil completely.

the freezer paper stencil once I had finished cutting ^

(his hair was a total PITA! I should have used a pic of him with his lid on lol)

The freezer paper stencil was then ironed onto the front of a light blue cotton t-shirt (cutting away the bridges once everything was positioned properly). And a complete sheet of freezer paper was also ironed into the inside of the t shirt behind the stencil, facing the other way. This is to act as a barrrier to any paint that might bleed through the fabric, as otherwise it could stain the back of the shirt.

The next step is to carfully sponge fabric paint - I used a metallic royal blue coloured paint by Lumiere - over the stencil, in a dabbing motion, with a fairly dry sponge. In other words, don't saturate the sponge with paint as if it is too wet it might make its way under the stencil and ruin your nice sharp outline. Instead go over with a nearly dry sponge a number of times, always dabbing up and down never dragging or scrubbing.

I didn't take a photo of this step, but you can imagine.

The next bit seems to take a lifetime - that is waiting for the paint to dry COMPLETELY before peeling off the stencil to see if any paint has crept underneath and ruined the whole thing (and wasted the stencil you took hours cutting!)

Thankfully, it was a very successful paint job in this case, with no bleeding at all, phew!

All it needed was a good iron to make the paint wash-proof, and it's ready to go over to Canada to the home of the Humming Giraffe :)