Journal Pop is my series of tutorials to help your journal pop with color, accents, and pretty ideas! You don't have to replicate my ideas, you should really try them out in your own style! But if your the kind of student who "monkey see, monkey do", then by all means, copy away! These aren't my ideas either, they're just universal ideas that many people have created, innovated, and repeated through the years! My job is to share it with you!
Welcome to another installment of Journal POP! In this post, you'll learn my favorite way to create image transfers, how to apply them effectively, and find other great sources for image transfers. I'm also very glad to finally cover this technique, since I know some of you have been requesting this for months! So I hope you enjoy!
Gel Medium
Pictures
Journal
Palette Knives
Cup of Water
Paper Towels
Scissors or Craft Knife
TIP: When picking out gel medium, I always turn to Golden. Click the link to find out which gel medium is right for you and your purposes. My favorite right now is the Soft Gel Medium - Glossy, because I not only use it for image transfers, but it's a great varnish as well. Glossy works the best for me because it's the most transparent.
TIP: I can't guarantee that every picture you try transferring will work. This technique works best with glossy magazine paper, ink-jet prints, copier prints, and some old book pages.
[1.] Cut out desired picture with scissors or craft knife. Your edges don't have to be too detailed since you might lose them in the transfer.
[2.] Scoop out gel medium and spread evenly on TOP of the image. (Be sure to not do this in your journal, this part needs to be done on a clean surface.) You'll know you have enough gel medium on the picture when it looks evenly cloudy. Do this step quickly before the gel medium dries out!!
[3.] Pick up your image carefully and press it face down onto the paper you want to transfer it to. The gel medium must be touching the surface that you want to transfer it onto (like a gel sandwich!).
[4.] Smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles with your fingers or a brayer.
[5.] Wipe off any extra gel medium that might have leaked out from the picture!
[6.] Let it dry! Drying can be as fast as an hour (if you're impatient) or you can let it sit out overnight. The longer the better.
TIP: When I'm impatient, I do a trick to let myself know when it's fully dried: Once I've smoothed out the bubbles and wrinkles, I'll dip my fingers in my water cup, and spread the water over my image until it's wet enough that the paper almost becomes transparent (you can see both sides of the paper). You'll know it's dry when the paper becomes opaque again. (Or if you want super fast results, dry it with a heat gun!) Proceed when the image feels dry to the touch.
[7.] Once your picture is dry, it's time to rip it off very very gently. The best way to do this is to use lots and lots of water. Dip your fingers into your water cup and begin to softly rub your fingers against the image. The paper will begin to lift, and you'll see the transfer underneath.
[8.] Continue rubbing and lifting the paper throughout the image until you are able to see the whole transfer. Let it completely dry again, and if you see any extra paper (white patches) that looks like this:
Then continue rubbing the paper away with water until you don't see anymore!
If you do tear though the transfer, STOP before you do any more damage.
Three reasons why your transfer isn't working:
[a.]You didn't let it dry long enough.
[b.] You didn't use enough gel medium, and your coat was uneven.
[c.] You might not have been quick enough to spread the gel medium onto your image before placing it into your journal, therefore the gel medium might have dried up before it was able to stick onto your journal page.
But don't give up yet! Just to make sure, leave it alone for a bit until the paper is dry again, then continue rubbing with water, but try in a different area. If you continue to see the same results (huge tears throughout the transfer, or not seeing a transfer at all), then you might need to start over on a new page with a new image.
Don't let it get you down! It just takes a lot of practice and a lot of mistakes to learn what works best for you. To cheer you up, here is my one big flop of my own (I threw away the others in disgrace!):
This image transfer wouldn't have worked out anyway, because my background was dark, and so was the image I was transferring. Make sure you have a light-colored background to transfer onto, or else you won't see the transfer at all!
Also, few small holes are OKAY! As long as you didn't loose too much of the detail, I call that successful! Sometimes it looks cool like that. Look at these examples of great journal pages with semi-successful image transfers.
Sometimes you have to use your imagination and fill in the blanks. Up above is a good example. I lost the girl's eye, but that didn't stop me from drawing it right back in!
And sometimes the holes can give a cool distressed look on your page if that's what you're looking for. Embrace the mistakes!
Image transfers can be used for all sorts of ideas! Here are a few suggestions:
-Have any scrapbook paper? Try transferring that pattern into your journal so that it blends in with your painted background?
- Create a whole page out of transfers. Here's Apple and Ink's canvas painting that only used transfers:
Thank you everyone who came to watch my show! I was so nerve-wracked at first, but you guys were amazing! Towards the end we were talking about the new semester of 21 Secrets (I was a teacher last semester!), and Ingrid from My Peace Tree was nice to join us and she's one of the teachers for 21 Secrets! They have such a great line-up this year, so go and check it out!!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll definitely do this again! You guys are so funny! ;)
Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you guys will produce some great image transfers! And have a silly April Fools Day!
♥
Natty
Gel Medium
Pictures
Journal
Palette Knives
Cup of Water
Paper Towels
Scissors or Craft Knife
TIP: When picking out gel medium, I always turn to Golden. Click the link to find out which gel medium is right for you and your purposes. My favorite right now is the Soft Gel Medium - Glossy, because I not only use it for image transfers, but it's a great varnish as well. Glossy works the best for me because it's the most transparent.
TIP: I can't guarantee that every picture you try transferring will work. This technique works best with glossy magazine paper, ink-jet prints, copier prints, and some old book pages.
[1.] Cut out desired picture with scissors or craft knife. Your edges don't have to be too detailed since you might lose them in the transfer.
[2.] Scoop out gel medium and spread evenly on TOP of the image. (Be sure to not do this in your journal, this part needs to be done on a clean surface.) You'll know you have enough gel medium on the picture when it looks evenly cloudy. Do this step quickly before the gel medium dries out!!
[3.] Pick up your image carefully and press it face down onto the paper you want to transfer it to. The gel medium must be touching the surface that you want to transfer it onto (like a gel sandwich!).
[4.] Smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles with your fingers or a brayer.
[5.] Wipe off any extra gel medium that might have leaked out from the picture!
[6.] Let it dry! Drying can be as fast as an hour (if you're impatient) or you can let it sit out overnight. The longer the better.
TIP: When I'm impatient, I do a trick to let myself know when it's fully dried: Once I've smoothed out the bubbles and wrinkles, I'll dip my fingers in my water cup, and spread the water over my image until it's wet enough that the paper almost becomes transparent (you can see both sides of the paper). You'll know it's dry when the paper becomes opaque again. (Or if you want super fast results, dry it with a heat gun!) Proceed when the image feels dry to the touch.
[7.] Once your picture is dry, it's time to rip it off very very gently. The best way to do this is to use lots and lots of water. Dip your fingers into your water cup and begin to softly rub your fingers against the image. The paper will begin to lift, and you'll see the transfer underneath.
[8.] Continue rubbing and lifting the paper throughout the image until you are able to see the whole transfer. Let it completely dry again, and if you see any extra paper (white patches) that looks like this:
Then continue rubbing the paper away with water until you don't see anymore!
If you do tear though the transfer, STOP before you do any more damage.
Three reasons why your transfer isn't working:
[a.]You didn't let it dry long enough.
[b.] You didn't use enough gel medium, and your coat was uneven.
[c.] You might not have been quick enough to spread the gel medium onto your image before placing it into your journal, therefore the gel medium might have dried up before it was able to stick onto your journal page.
But don't give up yet! Just to make sure, leave it alone for a bit until the paper is dry again, then continue rubbing with water, but try in a different area. If you continue to see the same results (huge tears throughout the transfer, or not seeing a transfer at all), then you might need to start over on a new page with a new image.
Don't let it get you down! It just takes a lot of practice and a lot of mistakes to learn what works best for you. To cheer you up, here is my one big flop of my own (I threw away the others in disgrace!):
This image transfer wouldn't have worked out anyway, because my background was dark, and so was the image I was transferring. Make sure you have a light-colored background to transfer onto, or else you won't see the transfer at all!
Also, few small holes are OKAY! As long as you didn't loose too much of the detail, I call that successful! Sometimes it looks cool like that. Look at these examples of great journal pages with semi-successful image transfers.
Sometimes you have to use your imagination and fill in the blanks. Up above is a good example. I lost the girl's eye, but that didn't stop me from drawing it right back in!
And sometimes the holes can give a cool distressed look on your page if that's what you're looking for. Embrace the mistakes!
Image transfers can be used for all sorts of ideas! Here are a few suggestions:
-Have any scrapbook paper? Try transferring that pattern into your journal so that it blends in with your painted background?
- Create a whole page out of transfers. Here's Apple and Ink's canvas painting that only used transfers:
Thank you everyone who came to watch my show! I was so nerve-wracked at first, but you guys were amazing! Towards the end we were talking about the new semester of 21 Secrets (I was a teacher last semester!), and Ingrid from My Peace Tree was nice to join us and she's one of the teachers for 21 Secrets! They have such a great line-up this year, so go and check it out!!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll definitely do this again! You guys are so funny! ;)
- Here's a link to Milliande's video that shows different ways to create image transfers.
- And another video by Collagegoddess on her image transfer technique.
- I always buy my Gel Medium at Dick Blick's Art Materials, so go check it out!
Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you guys will produce some great image transfers! And have a silly April Fools Day!
♥
Natty
8 lovelies:
Thanks for this! I am looking forward to trying it out. You can use the Gel Medium as a glue as well for other things besides image transfers right? I was thinking about just collage, without an image transfer? Is that the right product to use for something like that?
Thanks!
Diane
This is amazing, and I never knew this existed! Thanks for the sharing of this most exciting information! I want to try it...like, yesterday!
Oh, by the way, can you share how you do your awesome yellow title fonts?...or like, in your last post, how you do those sketchy block-letter fonts...is it a computer font, or your font uploaded to the putes? ;)
I'd love to know! <3 <3 <3
thanks for all your tips
this is something i MUST try in the near future.
Love your choice of colors in all of your images! I have a question: What do you use to sketch on top of the gel medium? I love how you added an eye to the image transfer, but haven't had much luck using my pen and marker stash over glossy gel medium. What do you recommend?
Great explanation! I love doing image transfers, but have never tried it this way. You've gotten some great results. Now I have something to play around with in my journal this month--thanks for that!
Oh my gosh I used to do this all the time back in school, but using emulsion for a deteriorated look. I forgot how much I love the look of it. Your pieces are lovely, you've got great style x
I am so glad that you finally posted details on how to achieve your great image transfers. The ones that I have done before always turned out so-so but after your hints/tutorial, I finally had success! http://www.flickr.com/photos/10681960@N05/5607314802/
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