A Fast Way to Make a Silk Screen
- 1). Measure the exposed screen on your silkscreen. Cut a piece of contact paper that is 1 inch bigger than each side of the screen.
- 2). Draw the image you want to print onto the contact paper with a permanent marker. Mark the positive space or areas the ink will be printed with an X. All the areas marked with an X will be cut out.
- 3). Lay your contact paper on a self-healing cutting mat. Tape the edges of the contact paper to the mat, making sure the paper is completely flat. Use the X-acto knife to cut out the positive images or images marked with an X.
- 4). Remove all the pieces you cut out. The contact paper should only be the negative space of the image you will be printing.
- 5). Lift the cut contact paper from the table. Lay the contact paper onto the top of the silk-screen. Move the paper around until the design is aligned onto the silk-screen where you want it to be for printing. Draw small circles along the top of the contact paper and silk-screen. Half of the circle should be on the contact paper and half should be on the silk-screen.
- 6). Remove the contact paper from the silk-screen and carefully pull back the backing from the top corner of the contact paper. Align the drawn half-circles together to ensure the contact paper is being placed on the screen correctly. Continue pulling off the backing along the top of your contact paper and push the sticky side onto the silk-screen with the circles matching.
- 7). Once the top of the contact paper is secured to the silk-screen continue pulling off the backing of the contact paper as you smooth the contact paper to the silk-screen. Work from top to bottom until the contact paper is entirely on the silk-screen.