How-To Screen Print

1. Buy a kit from Hobby Lobby-it's about $60 but definitely worth it if you don't have any supplies. The kit comes with a screen, 3 different colors of fabric paint, the sensitizer, emulsion, squeegee, and other stuff that is collecting dust in my craft closet.
2. AHEAD OF TIME: Mix the sensitizer with the emulsion. Instructions are on the bottles, and it's very hard to mess this up! Coat the screen, front and back, using the squeegee, with this new mixture. Put the screen in a dark closet, to dry. Most importantly, DO NOT LET LIGHT TOUCH THE SCREEN!

The coated screen (top image)
Sensitizer and Emulsion, mixed together (bottom left image)
Instructions...no worries (bottom right image)

3.  Find ANY IMAGE YOU WANT online, or scan an image you have on the computer. Using paint, or any photo-editing software, convert the image to a monochromatic image (BLACK AND WHITE, NO SHADES OF GREY). Print the image on a transparency sheet.

4. After the screen has dried (it can stay in the closet for a few weeks), place the transparency on the screen, and under a 200W lightbulb. A friend of mine said she did it under the Texas sun and it exposed in 20 seconds....awesome! My image stayed under this light for about 2 hours.

Exposing the image.
(The light heats up the emulsion. Wherever there is BLACK, the light heats up and it melts in the screen. Wherever is clear, is hardened and preserved. In other words, the black becomes a hole, and the clear becomes a plug in the silk.)

5. Wash the screen under a sink. I used a metal sponge and the spray-funtion on the faucet. Really scrub it out; this removes the emulsion from the blackened areas. 

6. Dry the screen. Ready to use!

Place a drop of fabric paint above the image, and swipe down, and sideways, using the squeegee. The paint seeps through the screen. Throw your shirt (or pillowcase, or fabric, or whatever!) in the dryer on HIGH to set the paint after it's air-dryed for a couple hours. Then you can wash/wear normally!

Our finished product...shirts for the Denton Women's Collective!

Some of my past projects...

Obama shirts during election season
Larry David (Curb, anyone?)
The Beatles