Mail Call

Fun stuff in the mail today! 

I sense a couple of DIY blog posts in the near future.... 

Music, Muse & Melange Transfer Challenge

It's Mmm..mmm..mmm...mmmonday!

Which M first? Musical Monday is the easiest place to start. Listening to Yusuf today while cobbling together my notes on tape & tile image transfers (see below). For more music & to share to your own tunes, click the MM button.

At Maternal Spark today, Monday's Muse wants to know - What is inspiring you this week?

My answer starts with yet another M - the Melange Blog Make a Transfer Challenge.

There are many ways to transfer an existing image from 1 place to another. Anything goes in this challenge - use printers, glass, fabric, paper, magazines, whatever. Here is the original post listing the (non) rules.

I decided to try something easy & went with a packing tape transfer. I used the contact paper transfer listed in Claudine Hellmuth's book Collage Discovery Workshop as a guide. I recommend this book, by the way - I have yet to try most of the techniques. But it is very easy to follow with great pictures and clear directions.

So here's what happened. Please note, I used the products I had on hand. Similar products by other brands should do the trick too.

I started with an original image that was laser printed onto basic copy paper over 2 years ago. (Yeah, I have some pack-rat issues). I popped the image a bit with colored pencils.

I taped over the image with clear packing tape & burnished with a bone folder.

More rubbing to make sure there are no air bubbles.

Soaked in water for several minutes.

Immediately, the piece curled up & kept sticking out of the water. I added more water & poked it a few times until it stayed submerged.

After 5-10 minutes I started gently rubbing off the wet paper. The ink stayed on the tape.

Still rubbing. Took a while to remove the last furry bits of paper that were only visible once dry. I just kept wetting & rubbing.

Here is the tape sticky side up. I was surprised it was still sticky after all the soaking.

Claudine Hellmuth adheres her transparent transfer to an altered playing card. I decided while my tranfer dried to use a white marble tile. Stamped the tile with this cool architectural stamp from Judikins. Pigment inks were used so that the line would soften a bit when sprayed with Krylon before the ink was completely dry (Figured this out while working on my last box)

Then I went in with a touch of color pencils & sprayed the tile with a Krylon Clear glossy finish.

After trimming the tape's edges, I glued it down with Liquitex gloss medium & varnish. I scraped across the tape's surface with the edge of my glue brush to remove air bubbles. An old credit card would work well too.

The contrasting finish was awkward (tape was too shiny), so I went over the whole piece with the gloss medium which I dry brushed again before it set. The faint texture of the brush strokes seems to bring it all together. You only see the strokes at certain angles. Viewed from the front, it has a uniform glossy finish. Now all is needs is some hanging hardware glued to the back.

Overall, this was a quick & easy process. A lot of fun too. If you give it a try, I'd love to see what you make. I have read though that you must start with a laser print or photocopy. Not an inkjet print, as the water will make the ink run.

To see more Image Transfer Techniques visit the Melange Blog. The comments on this Melange post have links to people's transfers. If you look over the past week's posts while you are there, You'll find several tutorials posted that show just how easy & fun image transfers can be