Image transfer with G45 papers

I guess my number one craft has always been working with textiles.  I wanted to combine it with my love of some amazing scrapbooking papers by turning them into something more durable and that can be used every day.  I was recently introduced to image transfer both through various groups here on the internet and also at my experimental textiles class at school.  The idea is probably as old as the hills.  How many times have I put a magazine or some paper down onto a sticky ring on the table only to find later that an image from that paper has transferred itself to the surface?

After a successful initial experiment transferring just one image onto calico using gesso as a medium

I decided to go for it big time using a full 12" x 12" sheet of paper. 

here's how I did it.

 

I Used

piece of calico/quilters muslin, pre washed and ironed.
A sheet of 12" x 12" G45 Ladies Diary 'Fashion Plates'
A large paintbrush, the larger the better when working big scale
Some acrylic paint or gesso.  I think ordinary household silk emulsion paint would work for this too, anything that dries to a plasticky finish.  Note whatever colour you use will tint the background of your piece.

 

I put a good amount of paint directly onto the image I wanted to transfer!  The trick then is to brush it over the paper fast, I made a mistake and used quick drying paint, to counteract this you could lightly spritz the paper with water first or even thin the paint.  You need to spread the paint so it is thick like peanut butter as you want it to soak right through your fabric.

 

Place the painted side of your paper onto the fabric and press evenly all over the backing to remove any air pockets and ensure good adhesion, I used a brayer.

wait for this to dry, preferably overnight.  I used a trouser hanger to hang mine in front of a radiator and it dried in a couple of hours BUT the longer it takes to dry I think the better the transfered image.

for the next bit you need water, a cloth and elbow grease.

 Wet the backing well and rub it away to reveal the image below.  I found the cloth worked well to get the process started although rubbing with a fingertip works well too.  When transfering  into a journal or onto any paper project you need to be a bit more delicate or you risk tearing the page, here you can be quite rough, at least until the image appears.

keep going until you have made lots of crumbs and your image looks fairly clean.  Allow to dry and then feel it, if it is smooth and parts of the image are rubbing away you have gone far enough but if like my piccy on the right you have rough bobbles of paper you need to re wet and polish with the cloth until smooth.

 

 

 

 

I applied my finished piece of textile onto the front of a hand made bag and made a tatty floral decoration using a selection of co ordinating paper scraps turned into textiles in the same way

 

transfering images from scraps onto calico

 

 I die cut the finished pieces using an assortment of Sizzix bigz dies, added some of the lining fabric backed with sticky backed canvas and some trimming I had in my box and added a matching G45 tag.