Jo Myhill Project #2 Image Transfer ....

"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.

ESN05

 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.

ID01

ID04

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.