Contributor post by Janis Nicolay of Pinecone Camp
Great to be back at Poppytalk! Today I'm sharing a fun, and fairly simple, photo transfer project with you. I've done a variety of different ways of transferring images onto wood, fabric and glass and even polaroid transfers, and plan to post more in the future. For this project I had an old bench that needed funktifying....
I started with a roughed up vintage bench. After stripping it and sanding it down, I put one coat of primer on it. Once it dried, I painted two coats of a pale grey (Universal Grey by Behr).
I chose an image, then cropped and sized it to work with the bench. I then printed it in reverse (as a mirror image), so that once applied it would read correctly.
Working quickly, I applied a layer of Liquitex Medium Gloss Gel on to the bench, then applied a coat to the front the image and placed it face down on the bench. I smoothed out the bubbles, then applied a coat of gel to the back of the image. The bench dried over night.
Once the bench dried, I used a textured cloth, soaked in warm water, to gently rub off the "back" of the image (the paper). Starting at the corners, I sat the wet cloth on the paper and let it soak through a little, before rubbing it off. This process took about an hour. Once dry, I took a fine piece of sand paper to it, having taken all the paper off, to rough it up a bit as well.
Great to be back at Poppytalk! Today I'm sharing a fun, and fairly simple, photo transfer project with you. I've done a variety of different ways of transferring images onto wood, fabric and glass and even polaroid transfers, and plan to post more in the future. For this project I had an old bench that needed funktifying....
I started with a roughed up vintage bench. After stripping it and sanding it down, I put one coat of primer on it. Once it dried, I painted two coats of a pale grey (Universal Grey by Behr).
I chose an image, then cropped and sized it to work with the bench. I then printed it in reverse (as a mirror image), so that once applied it would read correctly.
Working quickly, I applied a layer of Liquitex Medium Gloss Gel on to the bench, then applied a coat to the front the image and placed it face down on the bench. I smoothed out the bubbles, then applied a coat of gel to the back of the image. The bench dried over night.
Once the bench dried, I used a textured cloth, soaked in warm water, to gently rub off the "back" of the image (the paper). Starting at the corners, I sat the wet cloth on the paper and let it soak through a little, before rubbing it off. This process took about an hour. Once dry, I took a fine piece of sand paper to it, having taken all the paper off, to rough it up a bit as well.
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| Finished off the bench with 2 coats of the gel. Now it hangs out in our front all. |
The beauty of photo transfer projects, are all the little "cracks", "scratches" and "imperfections". That's what I love about it (and why I took sand paper to it!). So what I'm saying is, don't go mad if you can't get every air bubble out, or you rub a piece of the image off. Give it a whirl!
Janis
Comments
Pete, I doubt it would work with ink jet. I've experimented with laser prints. I should have added that little nugget. Thanks for pointing that out!
paper just to be clear and when you
say "regular photo copy paper" do you mean that the normal white paper which is used on the Kinko's laser printers or a special photo
paper you bought and if so, what size and brand paper? thanks.
Also... it is just a regular photograph to be used, or am I mistaken in this?
Thanks for this lovely Tut!!!
Just one question? I don't understand your directions to "print in reverse (as a mirror image), so that once applied it would read correctly."
how will the image show up if you are printing/glueing face down? or am I totally not getting this—no I dont think I am. Please explain.
Thank you!