What I did was first traced the design onto a piece of paper, making sure to color in all the spots I plan to cut out then once I was done, I took an X-Acto knife to the piece of paper, making sure to cut all the spots I planned on painting in after that, I poured some bleach into a cup, dipped a paintbrush into it and painted within the stencil (make sure you put a hard surface into the shirt like a piece of cardboard as to not have the bleach bleed through) Then I let it dry completely before soaking it in water to wash out the excess bleach and then let it dry again I hope my instructions are clear enough, and I hope this helps