"When we get a decent summer or autumn (no rain) I like to take photographs of flowers, really close up shots that fill the whole frame. I like distressing the actual photo when I print out on photographic paper, but really love image transfer as you never quite know what you are going to get. So this was a rose in my garden earlier this year, the red and orange where is was fading was just fabulous and intense, but also so decaying and shabby. I printed the photo out on the printer and photocopied it".
On some neutral linen cotton fabric I painted a thin layer
of Grunge Paste to give me a really smooth layer to transfer the image
onto. You don’t need to do this you can
transfer straight onto fabric or even paper (watercolour paper works quite well
as it’s thick), but I quite like that it stiffens the fabric a bit and I was
able to sand the image later to further distress.
I painted a medium layer of Satin Glaze on the dried
Grunge Paste and on the image and then laid the image face down on the
fabric. Carefully smooth it down making
sure the image is in contact with the fabric. Leave it to dry.
Now for the canvas. I started off with a couple of layers of
Vanilla all over the canvas to give a good base. Then I added a watered down layer of Haystack
with a paintbrush not all over just in places. You want to really load the brush with watered down paint so it pools in
place. Leave for 30 seconds and then dab
off with a cloth. Do again but this time don’t blot but leave it to dry
naturally. You want to dry and create
water stains. I stamped the text stamp from ESN05 with Brown Shed around the
edges.
One this was dry I
mixed Pumpkin Soup and Smoked Paprika added some water and splodged that on to add another
layer of colour. Being translucent and
watered down they add subtle tone rather than intense colour blocks. Finally a layer of watered down London Bus
splodged on the edges, blotted off and also flicked on with the paint brush.
In the middle of the canvas add a layer of Grunge Paste
reasonably thick as I wanted to stamp into it to give more texture. Using the time stamp from ESN05 I stamped all
over the Grunge Paste, you aren’t looking to read the stamp you just want the
indentations and raised bits the stamp gives. Leave to dry.
Once dry repeat the layers you added to the main canvas
starting with Vanilla and adding different layers of watered down Haystack, SmokedPaprika etc. Finally add London Bus and let it pool in the dips of the
stamping. Finally add blobs of LimeLight
in places and move it around with a brush that has quite a bit of water on it,
again you are looking to leave intense bits of colour in the dips of the
stamping. The Limelight acts as a visual hotspot to draw the eye into the
canvas.
Now to finish the image and remove the backing paper to
reveal the transfer, always a scary moment to See if it’s worked! Spray the paper with water just enough to
start to see the image appearing through. Then using your finger start rubbing the backing paper in small circular
movements, don’t be too heavy as you’ll remove the transfer. Go gently and
you’ll start to get rolled up pieces of paper as it comes away from the image.One you’ve gone all over the image (keep spraying if you need to) go over the
image with a wet wipe really gently to get rid of the little bits of
paper.
Once dry add either Gloss or Satin Glaze over the image to
seal it and intensify the colour. I then
used a sanding block to gently remove some if the transfer and reveal the white
Grunge Paste underneath in places. Finally I stitched the image to a piece of
felt and edged with Walnut Stain. The canvas was looking ok but it needed “more”. First I added
some LimeLight stencilling in a couple of places to echo the bits of Limelight
on the Grunge Paste centre. On some tissue paper (I have a small hoard of precious
PaperArtsy Crackly Tissue Paper) I stamped the Carte Postal from ESN05 in
Coffee Archival and the franking circle
from this set as well.
Once dry I used a wet paint brush to paint around the
stamped images which lets you tear the paper easily and give a ragged
edge. I mixed a bit of Autumn Fire and
Satin Glaze and stuck the tissue paper down in various places on the canvas.
On the edges of the canvas I put a little bit of GrungePaste on a palette knife and dragged it down the canvas, let that dry and then
put some Brown Shed paint over that and then some brown embossing powder with a
sprinkle of green as well to add another different texture. Once dry I then took the bottle of Brown Shed
and dragged it in places to give thicker lines and blobs of paint, as you are
moving the bottle just vary the pressure as you gently squeeze so that you
don’t get a thick even layer.
Now the card embellishments. I knew I wanted to layer the flower image on something else I didn’t
want to just sit it on the canvas. I
took some Smoothly Card and painted it with Vanilla and Irish Cream, thin
layers to give tone I added some layers
of watered down Autumn Fire and dried this.
Added quite a layer of water to the card (it’s so lovely and thick it
doesn’t warp or buckle when you add lots of water) and then dropped blobs of
Autumn Fire on top. Let these react with
the water they’ll sort of spread out and then go in with a paint brush to move
it around a bit more. I sprinkled pinches of Paprika embossing powder over the
card and heated it to emboss. It gave a
really nice rust effect. Once cold I
went over the card lightly with Walnut Stain.
Using Brown Shed I stamped the postcards from ID01 and ID04,
the receipt from Ephemera Plate 2 and the numbers form ID04. Cut them out,
distressed the edges and added Walnut Stain to the edges to define them and
give a bit of shadow for when they were stuck down.
So now to bring it all together. Starting at the top I positioned the two
number stamps and added a row of flowers, inked with Walnut Stain. I wasn’t originally going to put anything up
here but the embossing and paint I put there just didn’t look right (too messy)
and I wanted to cover it up! At the
bottom I played around with the three pieces of card to get the right formation
with the image transfer, the hessian and the linen strip that I folded and
stitched on the sewing machine. Adding the two flowers underneath the image
means that is still the dominant feature but ties in with the flowers at the
top. Around the outside of the fame I
used some tissue tape and added Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain distress ink.
Phew, this took some time to complete because it has so many
layers and techniques, but I think it works really well and I’m very pleased
with the image transfer. If you haven’t
tried this technique do give it a go, you get some really fantastic effects depending
on how well the image sticks to the Satin Glaze – so experiment!
Join me again on Wednesday evening with my final project of the week.
Leandra Says: Beautifulllll canvas Jo.Satin Glaze is such a multi purpose product. Great composition using the fabric elements.
Gillian Says: The image transfer worked out beautifully Jo using Satin Glaze ... I need to try this techniuque as it has been a while. Again adore your use of natural fabric elements alongside the warm colour tones.
Join me again on Wednesday evening with my final project of the week.
Leandra Says: Beautifulllll canvas Jo.Satin Glaze is such a multi purpose product. Great composition using the fabric elements.
Gillian Says: The image transfer worked out beautifully Jo using Satin Glaze ... I need to try this techniuque as it has been a while. Again adore your use of natural fabric elements alongside the warm colour tones.
