Silk Screening Dimensional Monograms - Tutorial

I made this little bubble racer back for Boo today and added her initials to the front. We tested out the water in the pool.....still a little cold, but getting warmer!



The initials have a dimensional 2-layer look to them.


First I printed out the initials I wanted to use:



Then I used double sided tape on the back of a sheet of contact paper.....


....to keep my initials in place on the back of the contact paper to make them easier to cut out. I used a razor blade to carefully cut them out.


You can read my full tutorial on screen printing with contact paper, but in a nutshell I placed the contact paper stencil on the back of my screen and applied a glob of white screen printing ink at the top. Note: I've used many different kinds of white screen printing ink.....all with different results. I love the Versatex white ink because it doesn't crack and is very soft when washed.


To get the three dimensional look, I pulled the ink DOWN the image and then repeated several times using enough pressure to bleed some of the ink under the contact paper. Then I repeated the same process pulling the ink from RIGHT to LEFT over the image to get the ink to bleed under the other way.

Note: You might want to practice this on a scrap piece of fabric to get the pressure right.....but since the ink is going under the contact paper you will need to wash and dry your screen for each print.


The finished print has a slight "shadow" to the left and bottom.


The finished dress!







Now onto my next project.....adding initials to our bedding!