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I make! Stenciled t-shirt edition

I have been coveting freezer paper for a long time.  It seems like a ridiculous things to covet.  But I am a ridiculous kind of person.

Anyway, why would I want freezer paper so badly?  To make stenciled t-shirts of course (and other things).

You see, I wear a lot of t-shirts (or at least I try to).  Most of my t-shirts have uncommon quotes on them.  Possibly even rare quotes.  Probably not epic quotes.

Example: One of my favorite shirts right now just says “meh.”  I actually have two of these.  One is a normal white silk screened shirt and the other one is in gold foil.  You know, for dressy occasions.

My sister has the same taste in nerdy shirts, although her shirts tend to go more toward the physics side of things.  One of her favorites has “Schrodinger’s cat is dead” on the front and “Schrodinger’s cat is not dead” on the back.

And while it’s perfectly acceptable to buy said shirts, what if they’re discontinued?  Or don’t have the right size?  Or use terrible American Apparel shirts?  Or more likely, I can’t find exactly what I want on the shirt?  I really should just make my own.

I had thought about getting a personal screen printer, but a friend told me it would just be something else I would store.  She was probably correct.  Also, it was really small.  And it probably wouldn’t really be very cost effective.

I had also considered just hacking together a screen printing system of my own.  It’s not hard to do.  I have the material to make the screen and frame.  I would just need to get drawing fluid and screen filler.  This would be more cost effective, but it would also require more effort on my part.  Also, with both these methods, I would be left with a permanent stencil.  What if I only wanted one shirt?  Seems like a waste of effort for just one shirt.

Thus, freezer paper stenciling.  Freezer paper is good for stenciling shirts because you can make your one off quote for a t-shirt and be done with it.  I made a shirt for a friend recently as an inside joke.

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It’s in Arial, 72pt, bold.  I used the Silhouette to cut it out because…why wouldn’t I?  I had to do a little cleanup with an X-acto knife after.

It was a little tricky ironing everything down because of all the separate counters and tittles (I read a book about typeface history once) I had to iron on after the main sheet.

I used a bottle of Tulip Soft Fabric paint, matte finish, in glacier white.  And…I was a bit too enthusiastic in sponging on the paint.  It bled a little under the freezer paper.  Sugh.  Sponging paint onto a stencil is not like needle felting.  You can’t be so enthusiastic about the stabbing and jabbing and expect to get away with it.

But it was still entirely legible.

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Because it’s totally true.

How to survive a zombie apocalypse with a scaredy-dog (2)

You’ll remember part 1.  Yaris was just barely out of her puppyhood and Choco was sneaking around just like in her prime.

Well, times have changed.  Yaris is no longer a puppy.  You can tell because she’s actually gotten much more stealthy.  She’s no Choco in terms of stealth, but her stealth rating is no longer negative.  It’s probably in the ones.  Maybe the low tens.

Yaris is also not quite as skittish as before.  I would say she’s still be considered a scaredy-dog though.  Completely useless to the military.

Choco…unfortunately is no longer around.  I can’t depend on her level-headedness and stealthiness in the event of a zombie apocalypse anymore.  It’s a huge loss to the team.  Yaris will really have to step up her game.

But besides losing such a critical member of the team, we’ve gained one.  And this one…I do not have high hopes for.

Horse’s stealth level is probably lower than Yaris’ as a puppy.  He makes a great show of being stealthy, but I doubt zombies would be much impressed by a show of stealthiness.  The zombies would probably be attracted by the show of stealthiness.  This is not desirable.

As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have Horse beam or anything related.  Yaris still has her Yaris beam.  Choco did have fully developed Choco beam.  I found out because I caught her using it one time.  Horse has…the ability to put up invisible barriers of force to impede his entry into the house.  It might be one of the most useless abilities ever.

He will go outside for some water and then suddenly be stuck outside and all he can do is sit next to the doggy door and whine.  The doggy door is not blocked (I did end up getting a bigger one so Horse could get in and out of the house easier).  Yaris is able to go in and out of the doggy door just fine.  But Horse…he’s stuck outside.

And it doesn’t seem that he has the ability to tear down these invisible barriers of force.  Yaris is completely unaffected by them, so I guess she can’t help him.  It seems that I have the ability to tear down his barriers.  They seem to dissipate on their own sometimes too.  But I just can’t understand why he puts them up to begin with.

I’m pretty sure he’ll end up putting up these barriers when we’re hunkering down in hiding spots during the zombie apocalypse.  Horse will get stuck outside and then he’ll whine because he wants to be inside with Yaris and me.  Then he’ll end up attracting the zombies.  He might then try to make a big show of being stealthy and attract even more zombies.  Horse…is a huge liability.

I’m not really sure what I can do with Horse.  He’s only been around for a few months.  Maybe he needs breaking in period.  Maybe we just need to get to know each other better and figure out each one’s strengths.  But if the zombie apocalypse happens before we can figure everything out, I’ll probably just have to cut my losses and take Yaris with me and leave.

Maybe if Horse is by himself, the zombies won’t bother him.  And he’s proven that he likes to graze on grass so he’ll be able to forage for food on his own.  If he wants to stay with Yaris and me, he’s going to have to prove that he has an ability other than putting up invisible barriers of force to impede his own entry into places.